
Class 
Book 



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COPYRIGHT OBPOSiT 





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V^^~->>^ NJ 





THE 



Life and Times 



OF 



Silas Wright 



By. Rv -M P 1 l l et 



Author of the " DeWOCKACY of the PniTED ^TATES," and " JhE fEDERAl. pOVEf^NMENX, 
ITS ppFICERS AND THEIR DuTIES. " 



Volume I. 



/ 



/ 



'Ji 



■'.■ ~1' 



Y5%' 



THE ARGUS COMPANT, PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS. 

1874. 



t.340 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year one thimsaud eight hundred and 

seventy-four. 

Bt R. H. GILLET, 

In the office of the Lilirariaii of Congress, at Washington. 



TO 



Won. Francis Preston Blair 

ffbe fife-long |)cvsouul auD ^oUtuul ,^"riena 

OP ' 

SILAS WRIGHT, 

This Work on jiis Life and Times is j^espectfully Pedicated, 

AS AN 

EVIDENCE OF ESTEEM. 

BV 

R. |-i. GiLLET, 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Autlior lias endeavored to present Silas Wright 
to the present generation as lie was seen and known to 
the last. Althongh ardently attached to him, he is not 
aware that he has overdrawn one trait in his character, 
or failed truly to represent the varied acts of his stirring 
life. For more than twenty years he was distinguished 
as a rising star whose brightness was never obscured by 
spot or cloud. Few did or said so much during their 
long lives. Whatever feelings envy may have engendered 
against him, he was no man's enemy. He wrote a]id 
spoke freely, and believed and felt what emanated from 
liim. To what extent his thoughts should be presented 
to the public, was a question of deep solicitude to tlie 
Author. On reflection, he finally determined to present 
wliatever came within his reach, as fully as the same 
came from him, whether it related to political, friendly 
or family matters. In no other way could he be pre- 
sented and seen as he was, and his true character be fully 
known and properly appreciated. It would present him 
almost as unfairly to suppress a portion of what he said 
and did as to add to either. 

His speeches, in most cases, were carefully and labori- 
ously prepared by his own hand for the public. His 



vi InTR OB UCTION. 

letters clearly and truly present his feelings and thoughts, 
and were designed to produce conviction in the minds of 
those to whom addressed. They contain nothing not 
consistent with trutJi, and wliich had not been freely and 
fully communicated to those with whom he mingled in an 
unrestrained intercourse. He never said, or did, or wrote 
anything concerning public affairs which he wished to 
conceal from the public. There are few thoughts, if any, 
contained in one now given, which he had not, at some 
time, freely communicated to the Author, and others 
about liim, without an injunction of secrecy. We think 
it due to his reputation and our readers to give his letters 
as we found them, as best calculated to show the man as 
he really was. It is not in the studied expressions of 
those laboriously prepared for the public that the real 
man is to be found, but in those rapidly dashed off for 
the eye of friends, whose criticisms never have stings. 
With very few exceptions, every letter given was written 
to trusted friends, and not for the public, and are there- 
fore the more valuable. They will be found between 
chapters where they do not constitute a separate one, in 
the order of date. 

Mr. Wright's speeches and reports, now given, do 
not, in all cases, possess the same interest as when first 
presented to the public. With the thorough investigator 
and profound statesman, their elaborate details, instead 
of being the source of objection, will excite great interest, 
while the political wisdom found mingled in them will 
well reward the labor of all who study them. 



Intr OD UCTION. Vll 

The Author hopes he has so presented Gov. Wkight 
as to secure for him the respect, if not the admiration, of 
all his readers. He trusts that many will profit by his 
examples in their journey through life. 

All must admire his patient and untiring industry, his 
cheerful and unflagging perseverance, his great frankness 
and sincere cordiality, his kindness of heart and inoffen- 
sive manners, his intrepid and unbending integrity, as 
well as his heroic self-sacrifice in sustaining his cherished 
political principles, by yielding his own and conforming 
to the wishes of those friends who sought his services in 
a new field of action, when he reluctantly consented to 
be made Governor. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



«VOLTJ]VrK I. 

i'AGE. 

Introduction v 

CHAPTER I. 
Preliminary Chapter 1 

CHAPTER II. 
Parentage and Birthplace of Silas Wkiuht 'S 

CHAPTER III. 
His Boyhood ^ 

CHAPTER IV. 
In College •' 

CHAPTER V. 

Selects the Law as a Profession and Studies it 13 

CHAPTER VI. 
Selecting u Place to Practice Law 1^' 

CHAPTER VII. 
Tlie Young Lawyer in Canton 1^ 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Other Relations in Life 



Mii/ 



CHAPTER IX. 
Mr. Wright and Local Offices 26 

CHAPTER X. 
Nomination and Canvass for the State Senate 39 

CHAPTER XL 
Elected to the State Senate '^'^ 

CHAPTER XII. 

In tlie State Senate 



X Table of Contents. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Paob. 

Organization and Proceedings in tlie Assembly 42 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Proceedings in the Senate on the Electoral Law 45 

CHAPTER XV. 

Clamor about the Postponement of the Electoral Law 59 

CHAPTER XVL 

Failure of the Attempted Censure for Not Opposing Mr. Crawford, 66 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Congressi(jn;d Cavicus in 1824 69 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Removal of De Witt Clinton as Canal Commissioner 73 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Legislative Caucus for Nominating Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, 77 

CHAPTER XX. 
Appointing Electors of President and Vice-President 80 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Changing the Electoral Law 82 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Successor of Rufus King 85 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Amending the State Constitution 91 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
State Bank Charters 92 

CHAPTER XXV. 
The New York Canals 100 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Legislative Caucus Address 104 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Van Buren Letter 114 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Nominated and Elected to Congress 119 



Table of Contents. xi 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Page. 

Retires from the State Senate 121 

CHAPTER XXX. 
What he Omitted to Do while There 132 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

In the Twentietli Congress at its First Session 124 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
Mr. Wright and Mr. Barnard 134 

CHAPTER XXXII 
Re-elected to Congress 187 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 
Elected Comptroller 139 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
Mr. Wright as Comptroller 143 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

The Georgia Missionaries 151 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

The Chenango and other Minor Canals. 154 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
Re-elected Comptroller 156 

CHAPTER XXXIX 

Elected to the Senate of thi' United States 160 

CHAPTER XL. 

Entrance into the Senate of the United Slates 162 

CHAPTER XLI. 
Letters Concerning NuUilication 164 

CHAPTER XLII. 
Nullification and Compromise Measures 169 

CHAPTER XLIII. 
Case of Elisha R. Potter Claiming a Seat as a Senator from Rhode 
Island 174 



xii Table of Contents. 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

Page. 

Removal of the Deposits from the Bank of the United States 176 

CHAPTER XLV. 
Defense of the New York Safety Fund Banking System 321 

CHAPTER XLVl. 
Views Concerning Legislative Inquiries into the Duties of Govern- 
ment Officials 231 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

Extending the Charter of the Bank of the United States 235 

CHAPTER XL VIII. 
Defense of Gen. Jackson's Protest 264 

CHAPTER XLIX. 
The Bill to Pay for French Spoliations prior to 1800 304 

CHAPTER L. 

Executive Patronage, or the Repeal of the Four Year Law 312 

CHAPTER LI. 

Expunging the Senate Resokition Condemning Gen. Jackson 335 

CHAPTER LII. 

Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia 340 

CHAPTER LIII. 

Relief of the New York Sufferers by Fire 353 

CHAPTER LIV. 
National Defenses 355 

CHAPTER LV. 
Specie Payments 384 

CHAPTER LVI. 

Distribution of the Proceeds of the Public Lands 392 

CHAPTER LVIL 
Purchasing Sites and Materials for Fortifications 444 

CHAPTER LVIII. 

Views Concerning Certain State Legislation in 1836 464 



Table of Oumtents. xiii 

CHAPTER LIX. 

Page. 

Public Deposits ^"0 

CHAPTER LX. 

Rechartering Banl<s in llic District of Columbia 511 

CHAPTER LXI. 

Reduction of the Duties on Imports 512 

CHAPTER LXII. 

The Suspension of the Banks in 1837 524 

CHAPTER LXm. 

Postponing the Fourth Installment of the Deposits with the Stales. . . 50G 

CHAPTER LXIV. 
The Constitutional Treasury 576 

CHAPTER LXV. 

Other Measures Introduced at the Special Session of 18o7 G27 

CHAPTER LXVI. 
Case of Richard W. Meade GoO 

CHAPTER LXVII. 
Independent Treasury Bill ^'J^ 

CHAPTER LXVIII. 
The Independent Treasury Bill and Mr. Tallmadge 095 

CHAPTER LXIX. 

New York City Remonstrance against Independent Treasury 098 



CHAPTER LXX. 



Issuing Treasury Note 



s 



709 



CHAPTER LXXI. 
Restraining the Banks in the District of Columi)ia from issuing 

Small Bills 715 

CHAPTER LXXII. 
Report on the Currency of the Government 721 

CHAPTER LXXIII. 
Report on the Finances of the Government 779 



xiv Table of Contents. 

CHAPTER LXXIV. 

Page. 

Postponement of tlie Fourth lustallnicnt of the Distribution 791 

CHAPTER LXXV 
Mr. Rives' Resolution 794 

CHAPTER LXXVI. 
Sale of the Bonds against the United States Bank of Pennsylvania.. 805 

CHAPTER LXXVII. 

Distributing Books and Constructive Mileage 867 

CHAPTER LXXVIII. 
Independent Treasury Bill becomes a Law . . . . 873 

CHAPTER LXXIX. 
Assuming the Debts of the Several States 880 

CHAPTER LXXX. 
Repeal of the Salt Duties 895 

CHxiPTER LXXXI. 
The Cumberland Road Bill 903 

CHAPTER LXXXH. 
Abolition Petitions 917 

CHAPTER LXXXIII. 

The New York Indian Treaty 926 

CHAPTER LXXXIV. 
The Bankrupt Bill of 1841 969 

CHAPTER LXXXV. 
The Banks in the District of Columbia 970 

CHAPTER LXXXVI. 
Repeal of the Independent Treasury 973 

CHAPTER LXXXVII. 
Finances of the Country 979 

CHAPTER LXXXVIII. 
The Principles of Granting Pensions 1005 



j ife aiut |l imcfj of mh] 




Preliminary Chapter. 

Wlien the intelligence of the sndden death of Silas 
Wright spread over the country, a common wish was 
manifested to learn more of his private life and character 
than was generally known, and to have his connection 
with public events fully developed. The former was 
met, in a limited degree, by the wide- spread republication 
of an anonvmous, but truthful contribution of the author 
to a newspaper during his canvass for Governor in 1844. 
The facts presented in the latter were limited to the recol- 
lection of editors, and seldom referred to in their annun- 
ciation of the melancholy event. Soon after, Mr. John 
S. Jenkins published a life of Silas Wiugiit, a very 
creditable work, considering the brief period in which it 
was prepared. It was included in a small compass, and 
eontained three of his speeches in Congress and an Agri- 
cultural Address, prepared but not delivered by Mr. 
Wright, in consequence of his death. This work was 
followed the next year by Jal)ez D. Hammond's third 
volume of his valuable Political History of New York, 
which included a life of Silas Wright of considerable 
length, showing great labor, care and diligence in its 
preparation, and, in the main, is strictly accurate. The 
author then contemplated the preparation of a biography, 
and the collection of his speeches for publication. But 
under the advice of Mr. Van Buren and others, the enter- 
prise was postponed until the prominent actors in the 
stuTing times when Mr. Wright was engaged in public 
life retired from the stage, as they might become restive, 



2 Life and Times of Sij.as Weight. 

if not deeply offended, by a trnthful and thorough exhi- 
bition of events as they actually occurred. A period of 
over twenty years has left few, if any, of these to be 
personally affected by anything which need find a place 
in a faitliful biography of this inoffensive, modest and 
genial citizen. Many have gone from earth, leaving their 
places to be hlled by other and younger men, and their 
own biographies grace the shelves of numerous libraries, 
to instruct the citizen and guide the public man in avoid- 
ing shoals and quicksands, and in finding the deep waters 
and road of safety. The following chapters will not unne- 
cessarily wound the sensibilities of any one. They will 
be devoted to the development of the life, public and 
private, of a model Citizen, Senator and Governor, and to 
the discussion and application of the enduring and cher- 
ished princijDles which guided him in every position, and 
the results naturally flowing from them. That they will 
exercise a beneficial influence, wherever known and appre- 
ciated, is confidently expected. In the far-off cabin, and 
at the humble fireside everywhere, the prayer is often 
breathed that principles like his might control our public 
councils and govern the private and public acts of men, 
and that others like him might arise to lead the people — 
the government — in the path of safety. Full often has 
it been said, by men in high positions, and even whispered 
in the Senate chamber, what a blessing it would be to our 
distracted country if he could again return to earth and 
resume his position in our ^^ublic councils, and by his 
wisdom, power of conciliation and his known unselfish- 
ness, combine the friends of the Constitution in favor of 
right and justice, and make our country what our fore- 
fathers designed it to be, a self-governed one, acting 
within the powers conferred by the Constitution, strictly 
construed, leaving the States to exercise, as they should 
see fit, all powers not granted to the federal government, 
and the people to pursue happiness in their own way. 



Life and Times of /Silas Wukihi: 3 



Chapter II. 

THE PARENTAGE AND BIRTHPLACE OF SILAS WRIGHT. 

The ancestors of Mr. Wright were among the early 
settlers of Springfield and Nortliarapton, in Massachu- 
setts. His grandfather removed to what is now called 
Amherst, at an early day, where his father, Silas Wright, 
was born. The latter, wliile quite young, was bound out 
as an apprentice to learn the business of tanning and 
shoemaking. He became well skilled in both and pur- 
sued them for considerable time. There were few schools 
in that vicinity, and he never attended one. At the close 
of his apprenticeship he worked as a journeyman for 
some time. During this period, through the kindness of 
a brother journeyman, he learned to read, write and keep 
accounts. Being a 2:)erson who observed everything about 
him, and reflected upon and understood whatever he saw, 
he readily learned to transact business with ^jromptitude 
and accuracy. In sound common sense he had no supe- 
rior. His personal appearance was attractive. He was 
noted for his cheerfulness, playful humor and lively wit. 
These made him a favorite in all circles. His memory 
was retentive, and he became a well-informed man. He 
was, in after life, often sent to the Legislature, and was 
the arbiter of differences among neighbors, and was often 
selected to manage and settle the estates of widows and 
orplians. At the early age of twenty he married Eleanor 
Goodale, an educated young woman. She was the 
daughter of Isaac Goodale, a revolutionary soldier, who 
had served as a journeyman with him in Hampshire 
county, in wliich Amherst was situated. The patrimony 
of both consisted of health. Industry and economy. Both 



4 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

were endowed with excellent judgments. Observation 
and reflection supplied what the schools had omitted. 
Mrs. Wright's household arrangements might have served 
as a model for thrift and domestic enjoyment. She was 
fond of narrating past events with amplitude of detail, 
which arrested the attention and chained all listeners. 
Her strength of mind, benevolence and kindness, made 
her a great favorite among her neighbors, and her society 
was much sought. These excellent people lived together, 
enjoying the blessings of kind hearts and mutual affec- 
tion, for sixty-three years. Their memories are fondly 
cherished by all who knew them. Of their nine children, 
two died in infancy, and seven grew up and were edu- 
cated. Their father was able to give them respectable 
outfits, and two sons, Silas and Plinny, college educa- 
tions, preparatory to studying law. The other sons 
became farmers, and the daughters married cultivators of 
the soil. Plinny read law, partly with his brother Silas 
and i^artly with James McKown, o.f Albany. He never 
eno-ao-ed in active business. Hl-health and over-mental 
exertion prostrated his mind at an early day. The senior 
Mr. Wright, generally known as "Captain Wright," 
was an ardent republican and a devoted supporter of Jef- 
ferson, Madison, Jackson and Yan Buren. His patriot- 
ism led him and his eldest sons to participate in the 
victorious battle at Plattsburgh on 11th September, 1814. 
His descendants, with just pride, point to the badge he 
wore on that day distinguishing him as one of the 
" Green -Mountain Boys." After a long and useful life 
he died at Weybridge, Vermont, on the 13th of May, 
1843, aged eighty-three years. His wife survived him 
about three years. Their descendants reside in Vermont 
and Northern New York, and enjoy the respect and 
esteem of their acquaintances, and are noted for their 
honesty, integrity, fidelity and kindly dispositions. 
Silas Wright, the subject of this notice, was born at 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 5 

Amherst, Hampshire county, Massachusetts, May 24, 
1795. This is one of the picturestxue and charming phices 
for which New Enghind is noted. It is situated on a 
tributary of Connecticut river, and is now a flourishing 
manufacturing village, where Amherst College is situated. 
When less than a year old, his father removed to Wey- 
bridge, Vermont. He settled on Otter creek, where he 
cultivated a farm until his death. While he was really 
a native of Massachusetts, Mr. Wright thus became a 
Vermonter. His attachments for the Green-Mountain 
home of his boyhood were strong, and continued through 
life, while all Vermonters looked upon him as substanti- 
ally a native of their State. They were proud of his 
success as a public man and of his high personal char- 
acter. The citizens of Weybridge, after his death, erected 
a beautiful monument to his memory, from which it has 
been said forty towns can be seen. 



(3 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter III. 

HIS BOYHOOD. 

There was little in the boyhood of Mr. Wright to dis- 
tinguish it from that of many others in the country. He 
grew up very robust, healthy and active. He had an 
exceedingly sweet temper, was remarkably mild and kind 
and much beloved by his playmates. Older people were 
often attracted by his genial qualities and were exceed 
ingly fond of him. His manners were pleasing and helped 
win esteem. His honesty, integrity and love of truth and 
justice were proverbial. He never assumed to command 
among his playfellows, but they unanimously made liim 
a trusted leader in tlieir sports. His word, or opinion, 
settled their boyish questions and disputes, and to the 
common satisfaction. He was early put to work on the 
farm, for which he had a great fondness, which continued 
through life, increasing with his years. No one worked 
more faithfully. He was always exceedingly thorough 
in whatever he had in hand. This early trait in his char- 
acter continued through life. 

He commenced attending school, winters, at an early 
day, and worked on his father's farm the residue of the 
year. On one occasion he manifested his attachment to 
a schoolmate in an extraordinary manner. The })oy sit- 
ting next him did sometliing that caused him to laugh 
aloud. He was called up to answer for the offense. He 
was told by the teacher that if he would inform on the 
boy who caused him to laugh, he should not be punished, 
but if he did not, he should be severely dealt with. 
Believing that the boy did not intend to involve him in 
difficulty, he declined to give his name. The consequence 



LiBE AND Times of Silas Wright. 7 

was, that he was severely chastised to save his comrade. 
Such an act of heroic self-sacrilice naturally endeared 
him to all his scliool mates. It elevated hiiu in the esti- 
mation of all who understood and apprc;ciat(Hl his 
motives. In after life he often silently l)ore the respon- 
sibilities of others, who should have voluntarily assumed 
them and have saved him from them. But he never 
murmured at such consequences. 

The talents manifested by the schoolboy, his upright- 
ness and the excellent disposition he exhibited, not only 
awakened the pride of th(^ father, but attracted the 
attention of all who knew him, and induced a general 
expression in favor of his receiving a college education. 
The father was readily induced to consent and to make 
the necessary provision. He had been a thrifty and pru- 
dent man and had accumulated a very considerable 
property, out of which this son could be educated, and 
leave for each of his other cluldren a sum equal to its 
cost. Silas thereupon commenced to prepare for college, 
and while doing so walked two miles and three-quarters, 
each day, to and from the academy which he attended. 

He was naturally quite diffident, and he doubted his 
capacity to accomplish some things which others did with 
ease. Declamation and composition were terrors to him. 
The fear of making a failure in these induced him to 
absent himself on Wednesdays, when they formed a part 
of the exercises. In a by -place in the field, he and his 
brother , older than himself, erected a hut of oak staves 
where they studied and learned lessons on other subjects. 
When the irregularity was known it soon terminated, 
and, on trial, he was found to be a good declaimer, and 
in composition he. early proved to be the best scholar in 
his class. 

The three winters previous to his entering college — in 
1811 — he taught district schools, two of them in Orwell, 
not far from Weybridge, although only from thirteen to 



8 Ltfe and Times of Silas Wright. 

sixteen years of age. In eacli he sncceeded in winning 
the affections of his scliolars and in giving satisfaction to 
their parents. 

One who was with him when prej^aring for college,* 
sa,ys : "At tliat early period his frankness, his unbending 
regard to truth, and his perfect, upright and fair dealing 
were not only conspicuous, but were proverbial among 
his associates. His natural temper was mild and attrac- 
tive. In the academy, while pursuing studies prepara- 
tory to entering college, he was an industrious student, 
and several times was the successful competitor for the 
small prizes proffered to excite emulation." His career 
in the academy was honorable to himself, satisfactory to 
its officers and attending pupils, and gratifying to his 
parents and friends. He left it quite prepared to enter 
college under favorable circumstances. He was quite as 
well prepared as any in his class. 

* Rev. H. S. .Tolinson, of Canton. 



Life and Times of Silah Wrjuut. 9 



Chapter IV. 

IN COLLEGE. 

In August, 1811, Mr. Wright eutered Middl(4)ui\v 
College in tlie Freslima.n Class, and remained a member 
of tliat institution until lie graduated in August, 1815. 
In college, he was never known to miss a lesson or trans- 
gress tlie rules in force. The Rev. Hiram S. Johnson, in 
a funeral discourse on his dt^ath, thus speaks of him : 
" My acquaintance with this friend commenced in 1811. 
In early life we were treading together the halls of 
science. I knew him there as an industrious and dili- 
gent student, and as one of the most upright and sober 
young men. I say this from positive knowledge, and I 
say it firmly, because I have heard misapprehension inti- 
mate that Governor Wright was then indulging in some 
excesses. He was there distinguished for moral honesty 
and for an unbending regard to the truth. His inflexible 
attachment to truth and firmness was there, as it has 
been through all his life, proverbial. I have heard those 
who could not be mistaken say that, even in the days of 
his earliest childhood, his regard to truth and fair 
dealing was known, marked and controlling. These 
principles, thus deeply infix(Ml, did much in laying the 
foundation for his unexampled elevation in after life. 
Mr. Wright graduated with honor and respect." 

He had no special taste for the dead languages, and it 
required much labor to keeji up with his class in them. 
Having no occasion to use it, the Grreek soon passed from 
his memory. The Latin, often occurring in the practice 
of his profession, was substantially retained through life, 
though not read with much pleasure. In those studies 
where mere memory was mainly involved, he cannot be 
said to have been very successful. But in those where 



10 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

the reasoning and reflecting faculties are largely brought 
into play, he had few, if any, superiors. In geometry, 
algebra and mathematics generally, he was eminently 
successful. These furnished food for the mind and 
tended to give it that permanence and solidity which he 
then, and through life, exhibited. Althougli he had, in 
no portion of his life, occasion for the practical use of 
these sciences, they laid the foundation for those clear 
and perfect demonstrations for which he was always dis- 
tinguished. 

The war of 1812 occurred during his college term, and 
brought with it intense political excitement. The prin- 
ciples of the democratic and federal parties, and their 
leading acts, became the subject of fierce and heated dis- 
cussion, as well in the schools and seminaries of learning, 
as in Congress and in the newspapers. Congress, on the 
recommendation of President Madison, and with hearty 
concurrence of the democratic, or republican party, as 
then often called, declared war against Great Britain to 
sustain "free trade and sailors' rights." The federal 
party, and especially in New England, violently opposed 
this declaration, and the measures taken to sustain it. 
The seeds of "secession," first plant(^d in Mr. Jefi*erson's 
time, were seen to sprout up and grow in New England. 
Notliing was there left undone to make the war and Madi- 
son' s administration a failure. Governor Chittenden, of 
Vermont, followed the footsteps of Governor Strong, of 
Massachusetts, and the Executive of Khode Island 
refused to permit the militia of his State to pass beyond 
its boundaries to aid in the defense of sister States. 
Tliey set at defiance that provision of the federal Consti- 
tution which declares that " the President shall be com- 
mander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United 
States, and of the militia of the several States, when 
called into the actual service of the United States." 
When Plattsburgh was threatened, the democrats of 
Vermont volunteered to assist in its defense. Among 



Life and Times of Silas Wei out. H 

the vohmteers was Mr, Wright's father, wlio was made 
a captain, a ])rother, two brothers-in4aw and most of 
their neighl)ors. They all jiarticipated in the great bat- 
tle won by G-eneral Maconil), rendered the more memora- 
ble by McDonongh's great victory on Lake Champlain, 
f ought at the same time. Such events were well calculated 
to arouse the feelings and precipitate conflicts not limited 
to mere words. His class consisted of alwut thirty, 
he and three others being the only democrats. Notwith- 
standing this disparity in numbers, these four young 
men were ever ready to defend their principles and the 
action of their party. It was conceded by graver heads, 
that they had as much the best of the argument, as their 
adversaries had the largest number It was dnring this 
war, and on the occasion of these discussions, that the 
broad and firm basis of his political principles was laid. 
He tlien adopted the belief that the principles of the 
federal party, if carried out to their natural conclusions, 
would lead to secession and disunion, and that their acts 
at that time had such an end in view. These opinions 
abided with liim through life; and he fully believed, as 
much as he did in his own existence, that it was neces- 
sary to secure the triumphant success of democratic 
principles, in order to preserve our federal constitutional 
form of government and secure the States in their 
reserved rights and duties, and preserve the Union. His 
whole political action, at home, in the Legislature, in 
Congress and as Governor of his State, had this unchange- 
able basis. H(? could never comprehend how principles 
beat into a man, in war, could fairly be beat out of him 
in peace; nor why, when a man once fully believed in a 
long series of political doctrines, he could forget or 
renounce them all, aud become a true and sincere believer 
in those of an opposite character. His theory was, once 
a democrat, always a democrat, and that a federalist 
never really changed, however he might talk. Here we 
have a key to many of the important acts of his life. 



12 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter V. 

MR. WRIGHT SELECTS THE LAW AS A PROFESSION, AND 

STUDIES IT. 

On completing Ms studies in college, the selection of 
an occux^ation became a subject of importance. His 
friends concurred with him that it would be best to 
choose one of the learned professions. His knowledge 
of history satisfied him that the profession of law would 
best promote his highest aspirations. It had taught him 
that in all ages, and in all countries, the legal profession 
had furnished the greatest number, and the ablest and 
most successful champions of true liberty. Thek educa- 
tion and training, as well as the practice of their pro- 
fession, especially qualihed them to understand and 
defend tlie principles of human li]:)erty. Those who 
most ably and successfully defended them in Greece, 
Rome, on the Continent, in Great Britain and in this 
country, were members of the legal profession. Demos- 
thenes, Cicero, Burke, Sheridan, Fox, John Adams, 
Jefferson, Madison, Patrick Henry, Rutledge, Lee, Hamil- 
ton, Jay, Livingston and numerous others had been 
members of the legal profession. He then and always 
believed that the world was more indebted to that pro- 
fession than to any other for the liberty that mankind 
enjoy. His deep democratic feelings he believed to be 
enlisted in the same cause. His father soon became a 
convert to his son's views, and it was resolved, by com- 
mon consent, that he should become a lawyer. 

The important question where he should learn the 
law was wisely decided. No bench or bar stood higher 
than that of New York. She had an equity system, the 



Life anj) Times of Silas W'l: /<;//'/'. X3 

broad I'omidatioi IS oL' wliioh had been laid by that eiiiiiicut 
Jurist, statesnian and patriot, Robert R. Livingston, of 
Cohunbia cninty, had been enkirged by Lansing and ])er- 
fected by Kent. No New-Enghmd State liad a eouit of 
chancery. Her commondaw courts liad been niatuivd 
and risen to eminence, under the adjudications of a Tomp- 
kins, Woodworth, Phitt, Van Ness, Thompson and 
Silencer. The decisions of tlie New York courts stood 
quite as liigli as those of any other State, and far above 
most of them. The bar had its Williams, Van Buren, 
Emmet, Talcott, Oakley, Stoors, Van Vechten, Henry, 
Slosson, Harrison, Livingston and many others, who 
added luster to the profession. The conditions of admis- 
sion imposed by the conrts, seven years' study, four of 
which might be classical, guaranteed the necessary pre- 
paration and discipline which were calculated to secure 
learning, intelligence and practical usefulness among the 
members of the bar. Their whole training was calculated 
to elevate them to the highest rank in society, and render 
them practically useful. It was among this description 
of men he desired a position, such as his talents, educa- 
tion and industry might enable him to command. TJie 
compensation for professional services in New York was 
equal to that of other Northern States, hence this State 
was selected as the one in which to read and practice 
law. 

He commenced the study of the law at Sandy Hill, in 
Washington county, New York, in October of 1815, in the 
office of Martindale & Wait, with whom he remained 
about eighteen months. The senior member of this iirm 
subsequently became a distinguished an ti- democratic 
politician, and was elected to Congress. Mr. Wright 
finished his studies with Skinner & Mussy, of the same 
place. Mr. Skinner was a brother of Governor Skinner, • 
of Vermont. He became United States District Attorney 
for the northern district of New York, and, subsequently, 



14 LlFl<: AA'IJ TlMKS OF SiLAS WEIGHT. 

United States Judge iu tliat district. He was elected 
State Senator iu April, 1818. and held that otRce while 
District Attorney, and after his appoitment as United 
States Judge. He was a distinguished leader in the 
democratic party, of great purity of character, and was 
highly esteemed by all who personally knew liini. It is 
most probable that Mr. WiiiaiiT left the one law office 
for the other with reference to his political feelings. He 
and Judge Skinner were devoted friends. TIk^ jiidge, 
durmg the latter part of his four year senatorial term, 
was a member of the old Council of Appointment, and it 
was, doubtless, through him, with the aid of Mr. Van 
Buren, then a Senator also, that Mr. Wright received 
his first commission as a Justice of the Peace and Sur- 
rogate of St. Lawrence county, as he often said they 
came unsolicited. To aid in his own support, Mr. 
Wright taught school one or two winters while read- 
ing law. He also practiced in Magistrates' Courts. 
At the commencement, his natural diffidence threatened 
to defeat his success. Thorough preparation enabled 
him to overcome this painful difficulty. In his studies, 
he completely mastered every subject that came in his 
way. He sought out and investigated the j^rinciples 
upon which decisions were founded and the rules of law 
were established. When he learned a rule of law, he 
mastered the reasons for its adoption. 

With him the law was a science, for which he could 
furnish approved demonstrations. Books of authority 
were deemed useful, but logical demonstrations were 
more so, and were always at command. Next to legal 
principles, he carefully studied the forms used in his 
business, and so impressed them upon his memory that 
he could accurately prepare papers without the aid of 
precedents. In system and order in the office, he was. 
like Washington and Jeffferson, faultless. He was ?vble 
to answer every question on his examination for admis- 



Life amj Times of Sjlas Wuigiit. X5 

sion. He was admitted at the January term uJ" the 
SujH'eme Court, in 1819. 

It was while lie was a student in Judge Slvinncr's ottice 
tliat he became acquainted witli Martin Van Bui-cii, then 
Attorney-General of the State of New York. Tliey lirst 
met at Caldwell, on a boat on Lake George, wlien a X)lay- 
ful incident occurred on leaving it, often referred to by 
them. Tlie Attorney-General, in attempting to frigliten 
the law student, received an accidental baptism, bringing 
a laugh ui)on liimself. Tlu^y were then strangers. The 
next day they met in Judge SSkinner's office, wlien the 
high official met him witli cordiality, and invited the 
student to dine with him at the hotel, with Colonel 
Charles E. Dudley, afterward his colleague in the State 
and United States Senate, and several others. Then 
and there commenced that friendship and confidence 
which only ended in death. They increased with time, 
and became proverbially strong. The confidence between 
them never wavered. Mr. Van Buren was always true 
to his friend when living, and cherished his memory 
wlien dead, while Mr. Wright sacrificed for him many 
opportunities of merited advancement. They lived and 
died confiding in each otlier to an unlimited extent. 



lf> Life a ad Times of Silas Wrigut. 



Chapter VI. 

SELECTING A PLACE TO PRACTICE LAW 

The question oi' locality wliere to x>i*actice, is one 
of importance to a lawyer just admitted, as well as to a 
practitioner of experience. This is often a difficult ques- 
tion, and the determination of which involves the consid- 
eration of many doubtful points. If he locates in a city 
without a previous reputation, or influential friends to 
aid him in securing business, can he expect to succeed 
without an insufferable delay '( If he is without consid- 
erable means, how can he sustain himself while waiting? 
If he goes to a new place, lio]jing to grow up with the 
country, liow can he determine what places will grow up 
and furnish business of any considerable value? How 
long must he there devote his time and talents to patience 
and hope before productive business shall spring up? 
Questions like these were discussed between him and his 
father. His severe and persistent application as a student 
had much impaired his former robust health. It Imd 
brought upon him a headache, commencing in the fore- 
part of the day, which continued until near night. 
Outdoor exercise, and particularly on horseback, was 
deemed the most apj)ropriate remedy. 

Considering these circumstances, it was determined that 
the young lawyer should personally explore western and 
northern New York on horseback, for the double purpose 
of restoring his impaired health and selecting a suitable 
location for practice as a lawyer. Accordingly, his father 
furnished him a suitable horse, and supx)lied him with 
the requisite means, and he commenced his explorations 
early in tlie summer of 1819. He visited many places in 
western New York which have since become the centers 
of population and business. Returning, he passed from 



Life asd Times of Si/.as Winmir. 17 

Watertown to Plattsburgli, tliruugli Canton, in St. Law- 
rence county. Here he met with a former neighbor iroin 
Weybridge, Captain Medad Moody, an okl Iricuid oi" Jiis 
father's, who earnestly besought hmi to locate in Canton. 
Captain Moody was a man of excellent sense, with a veiy 
sound judgment. He had established himself there, on 
the bank of the Racquet river, as an inn Iveeper, expect- 
ing at some future day the county buildings would be 
located at that place and the courts held there. He called 
attention to the map of the State, showing that St. Law- 
rence county was as large as some of the States, with not 
a mountain or much waste land in it— that it abounded 
with excellent timber and splendid waterfalls for mills, 
and excellent building stone, and that the soil was 
superior for grain and grass. He insisted that it must 
become a rich county and furnish at Canton ample 
employment for an able and honest lawyer. He offered 
to erect for him a commodious office, and render him all 
the assistance in his power, assuring him of complete 
success. Others joined the captain in his account of the 
flattering prospects for a young lawyer at Canton. The 
considerations thus presented were carefully weighed 
by Mr. Wright, while many others presented themselves 
to his observing and reflecting mind. He became satisfled 
that the county buildings could not long remain at 
Ogdensburgh, on the St. Lawrence river, n(^ar one corner 
of the immense county, and that Canton was a central 
and natural location for them. There were no lawyers in 
the county nearer than ten miles, and all but two were 
eighteen miles distant. There were mills, factories, stores 
and hotels at Canton, which was a lirst-rate farming town- 
ship ten miles square. The place must grow and his 
businesr grow with it. Time has proved the correctness 
of these anticipations. These and some other minor 
considerations induced the young lawyer to locate there. 
He returned home, and his father approving his location, 
he returned and settled at Cnnton in October, 1819. 



]_8 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter VIL 

THE YOUNG LAWYER IN CANTON. 

In the fall oi 1810 there rode into Canton a young- 
man twenty-four years of age, of a nui8cuhir and robust 
build, neatly but plainly dressed. He wore a tall but 
narrow-rimmed hat, which enabled others the more fully 
to see his large, florid face. His complexion was dark, 
eyes light and hair nearly black, but thin, made so by 
voluntary action to counteract pain in the head. He was 
mainly dressed in homespun of the better kind. His 
manners were simple, but easy and calculated to attract 
attention. His conversation was plain, simple and natu- 
ral, which all could understand, and he made no effort at 
display. Neither Greek, Latin, nor pithy quotations 
were heard from him, nor striking poetical expressions. 
All could axiproach him and feel at ease. His int;ercourse 
with tli(3 people induced the belief that he was gentle, 
kind and benevolent. The fear of contentions and law- 
suits, which his first entrance occasioned, were soon dis- 
sipated, and gave place to respect, admiration and attach- 
ment. The people soon became proud of the new comer. 
Captain Moody recounted the virtues of the father, and 
predicted their reappearance in the son. The citizens of 
that town soon gave him tlieir unlimited confidence, and 
he cheerfully gave them his. They had but little law 
business, but what they had they unhesitatingly confided 
to him. He did not seek business, but it came to him. 
He never commenced a suit without perfectly under- 
standing its merits and having a clear conviction that the 
plaintiff would succeed. He seldom tried a cause where 
he did not fully understand what the witnesses on both 



Life a.xb Timfs or Silas Wniuht. U) 

sides would say, witli full UKHuoiaiidums of llicir 
expected testiuiony. The poiuts which each side was 
expected to make were carefully noted, with the authori- 
ties to which each was expected to refer. He was iicver 
taken by surprise on a trial, though his adversaries oft(;ii 
were. The late distinguished Aaron Hackley, when 
opposed to him on a trial at Ogden.sburgli, audibly 
remarked, " My God, what is that young fellow's head 
made oiV His skill in the examination of witnesses was 
proverbial and extraordinary. Even reluctant witnesses 
usually became impressed with the idea that he was 
fair and kind, divulging fully whatever they knew. 
Juries conlided in him, almost as much as in the judges, 
and scarcely ever failed to place implicit confidence in 
his addresses to them. In no instance did he ever utter 
a word to them or the court, which he did not religiously 
believe to be true and right. Hence the confidence which 
they had in him. Success must nearly always follow 
such conhdence. Mr. Van Buren expressed to him, at an 
early day, the opinion that he ought to remove to w^estern 
New York and compete with John C. Spencer for the 
honors of the l)ar. But his diffidence concerning his own 
powers, and local attachments, would ncjt permit him to 
do so. He loved Canton and his neighbors and St. 
Lawrence county too well ever to abandon his selected 
hom(\ ^ He was contented with tlie small income which 
his limited Imsiness afforded him. Instead of grasping 
for more business and greater gains, he seemed almost to 
shrink from what he had, and was contented with little. 
It is known that he spent as much time to induce his 
neighbors peacefully to adjust their controversies, as 
others did to secure new business. As a magistrate he 
not unfrequently abandoned his fees to induce the par- 
ties to make amicable settlements. On one occasion he 
appeared before a magistrate for one of his neighbors, 



20 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

and, at liis suggestion, the counsel'^ on the other side and 
the justice assenting to it, the parties were got into the 
tatter's ofRce, and loi'ked in and Ivept there until they 
amicably settled. They thus became friends, and both 
thanked liim for what he had done, while all acquainted 
with this new court of conciliation and its success 
breathed blessings upon him as a peacemaker. 

Mr. WuiGHT, in his practice as a lawyer, seemed to 
overlook his own interests and treat them as of minor 
importance, but was exceedingly watchful and attentive 
to those of his clients. He seemed to love labor, and 
would not allow a student to lighten the drudgery of 
copying his papers. Neither in his office nor in the 
courts did he make a display of his classical education, 
or attempt to confound a listener by using technical or 
other special law terms. He always used plain and sim- 
ple language which all could understand and appreciate. 
There was truth and justice in the remark made by a 
sensible townsman, "that he was the only lawyer he 
ever knew whose law was all common sense, and who 
always gave plain, sensible reasons for his opinions upon 
all subjects." In this sentence we have an ample reason 
for the confidence which his acquaintances reposed in 
him, and a key to his success as a lawyer. 

While practicing law, and before entering public life, 
his amusements, beyond conversation with his neighbors, 
were few. But they were healthful and instructive. He 
spent much time in the forest, rifie in hand, hunting, but 
with limited success; though a good marksman, his skill 
never enabled him to carry in venison of his own killing. 
Much of his leisure time was spent in reading. Shak- 
speare was his favorite author. He considered him the 
best and closest observer who had ever written, and 
admir-ed his descriptions of men and things. He con- 

* The Author. 



Life and Times of Stlas Wright. 21. 

sidered liis works a fountain of wisdom. He nc^vcr tii'ed 
in reading tliem. He read the pul)lic pajxMS, hut ahvays 
with the main design of gleaning sometliing to rcunember. 
During his service in the Senate of tlie United States, 
and pai'ticularly tlie latter part of it, when compelled to 
perform a vast amount of labor, he read lighter works 
to relieve the brain, hy diverting his thoughts from 
fatiguing subjects. In tins, lie followed tlie examph; of 
many laborious men, like W. M. Men^dith, of Phila- 
delphia. Tradition informs us that, when mentally 
fatigued, Mr. Jefferson relieved his mind and changed 
the current of his thoughts by resorting to his violin. 
He said, the year before he died, that he had used this 
instrument, two hours a day, from his boyhood. Exces- 
sive mental fatigue is relieved, with many, by the gambols 
of children, with which Mr. Wright was not blessed. 
The light works which he read for the relief of the mind 
he never attempted to remember. 

In his professional reading, he was diligent in seeking 
and understanding the princij)les involved. He read law 
exceedingly slow, being desirous of accurately ascertain- 
ing the true theories upon which the law was based, and 
of so impressing them upon the mind as to recollect 
them in all future time and to be able promptly to apply 
them in practice. In reading Shakspeare for amuse- 
ment, he manifested the same care in understanding what 
he read. But he seldom, if ever, quoted from liim, or 
any other author. He preferred uttering his own 
thoughts in his own language, instead of that of another, 
however elegant, forcible or apx)ropriate. He never used 
his voice as the vehicle of conveying other men's 
thoughts, however splendid or impressive. 



22 LiF^ AND Times of Silas Wiught. 



Chapter VIIL 

OTHER RELATIONS IN LIFE. 

On settling in Canton, Mr. Wright identitied nimself 
with tlie people, and was active in everything which con- 
cerned or interested them. The practical good sense 
which he manifested on all occasions, soon induced them 
to put him forward as a leader in almost everything. His 
example was copied, and all became emulous to please 
him. When sickness demanded watchers, he was always 
ready, and often walked several miles, and sometimes 
through storms and mud, to attend the bedside of the 
sick and afflicted. His care and thoiightfulness rendered 
him a very acceptable watcher. His presence and atten- 
tion awakened hoj)e and gave confidence, when that of 
others failed to do so. He encouraged the citizens of 
Canton in improving their highways, by accepting the 
position of road-master, and working, without reference to 
the amount of his tax, with his own hands. Tlie conse- 
quence of this was emulation in the different road dis- 
tricts, which resulted in Canton having the best highways 
in the county. Although without musical talent, to 
encourage others and to secure good music in the church, 
he was the first who became active in establishing sing- 
ing schools, and was ever a punctual attendant, and took 
part in the clioii- of the church. 

He was a liberal supporter and a punctual attendant 
of the Presbyterian church, and, in the absence of a 
clergyman, read sermons, while the deacon attended to 
other religious duties common in churches. Being an 
excellent reader, it was long remarked that the printed 
sermons he read made the attendance at church more 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

interesting and profitable than at any otlnu- period. The 
operations of the liuman mind on svich subjects exhibit, 
occasionally, some singular peculiarities. On onc^ occa- 
sion, when he seemed to read from the printed volume, 
he actually read a manuscript sermon prepared by a Mr. 
Catlin, the hatter of the town. It was extolled as oik^ of 
Dr. Spring's best productions, but when tlie author 
became known it was denounced as a trashy aftair. 

As an officer under the common-school system, he 
devoted much time and attention in furthering the inter- 
ests of education. His visits at the schools were hailed 
with delight. During the period of his expected visits, 
lx)th teachers and pupils labored for his a])plause. A 
kind and cheering word repaid l)()th for days of unremit- 
ting labor. The complimentary expressions used by 
him were repeated and spread over the town with great 
joy by both parents and children. Tlie latter would 
purposely put themselves in positions, when he was 
expected to pass, so as to secure an approving smile and 
a word of encouragement. The secret of the attachment 
of children to him, as w(^ll as others, was developed in 
after life by a young fairy miss of some eight summers, 
who, on being asked why she liked liini, answered, 
"Because he always speaks so kind to me.'' Here was 
an unconscious declaration of a great philosophical prin- 
ciple, upon which much of the happiness of mankind 
depends. She still lives, is the wife of one of tlie first 
lawyers of Burlington, Vermont, and often dwells upon 
his memory with peculiar delight. 

The accumulation of wealth, beyond what his lalwrs 
naturally produced, seemed never to occupy a thought 
of his. He made no investments with reference to the 
growth of the village, or the rem.oval of the county 
buildings to Canton. He never became a subscriber for 
stocks, anticipating a rise. Later in life, on two occa- 
sions, friends, hoping to benefit him, did so without 



24 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Ills knowledge or consent, whose acts, so kindly intended. 
Ms regard for tliem induced him not to repudiate. Mr. 
Coming's subscription to tlie stock of tlie Utica and 
Schenectady railroad turned out well, and that of Mr. 
Croswell to the American Land Company quite the 
reverse. He was never known to be laying plans to 
secure pecuniary gain or personal advancement. No one 
ever accused him of wrong or injustice. Every engage- 
ment made by him, down to those made to children, was 
scrupulously fulfilled. A promise, without a considera- 
tion, was as sacred with him as if made for coined gold. 
In settling accounts, where doubts arose, he always 
refused the doubtful penny, often saying he had no use 
for it, and that it would burn a hole in his pocket. The 
example of Mr. Wright, upon nearly every subject, 
exerted a most salutary influence in his town. The 
desire so to act as to secure his apj^robation seemed to 
be almost universal. "What will Silas say?" was a 
question often asked. Contests, and other matters, 
which, on reflection, it was thought he would not approve, 
were usually abandoned. Nearly every one manifested 
a disposition to conform in all things to his example. It 
became discreditable, and then odious, to wrangle, quar- 
rel or act meanly. Lawsuits among themselves went out 
of fashion. The people of Canton became noted for 
order, uprightness and integrity. It is due to truth to 
sa}^ that this was owing to the silent exami^le of Mr, 
Wkight, and the desire of the citizens to please him. 
He made no effort to control, nor did he fight vice and 
call upon others to witness his zeal and exertions, 
expecting them to applaud him for it. He ruled by the 
purity, sincerity and integrity which controlled his own 
action, and all as quiet as the index hand directs the 
stranger on his travels upon ih^Q highway. 

Through life, his dress was simple and plain, but 
exceedingly neat. He seemed only anxious to appear 



LtPE ANT) TrMF.S OF Si LAS WUKUfT. 25 

respectably in liis position. He was always cool and col- 
lected, bnt was qnite diffident. Tliis contribnttnl to his 
wish to avoid occasions when formalities and display werc^ 
tlie leading features, from which he seemed to shriidv. 
No one was more gentle or frank. His collocpiial 
powers were of the highest order. These qualities won 
the hearts of all who came in contact with lum. l^>nt for 
the formalities of many official positions he always had 
strong distaste, which grew upoii him as life advanced, 
and was, doubtless, among the reasons for his rejection 
of the cabinet positions and foreign missions offered him 
on various occasions by different Presidents. He loved 
the simplicity of country life, and preferred the society 
of his neighbors to that of kings, princes and high offi- 
cials, association with whom w^as often througli a laby- 
rinth of forms and ceremonies. This he could not endure. '^' 



*It is due to liis memory to state that, when he had been in practice some 
two years, his professional duties called him to Potsdam, where he met a 
young mail in deep poverty, struggling to learn his own profession. Kind 
words from the landlady who kept the village inn induced him to call him 
in. He studied his character and capacity, and learned all about, his means 
and hopes. Although actually reading law, he did chores for the lawyer 
with whom he was studying, to cover his board, and lu- was without friends 
or relatives to aid him. At the close of the interview he invited him to come 
to Canton and read law in his office, ottering to secure him the village schoc^l 
to meet his expenses. lie gladly accepted the invitation, and was soon 
with his first patron. He remained with him until he was elected to tlie 
State Senate, in the fall of 1H23. The young man, at the proper time, was 
admitted to the bar, and became a successful practitioner. He rose, by 
industry and perseverance, and very early in life served two terms in Con- 
gress; was voluntarily appointed, by Mr. Van Buren, to negotiate Indian 
treaties; was voluntarily made Register, and then Solicitor of the Treasury 
by Mr. Polk; was employed as assistant in the Attorney-General's office 
under Mr. Pierce, and was made Soli,citor f or the United States in the Court 
of Claims, where he served three years. During nearly all this time he 
practiced in the higher courts in New York or Supreme Court at Washing- 
ton. Until the death of Governor Wright, in 1847, their friendship was 
without interruption. The survivor believes that he owed his deceased 
friend for his successes and advancements during his life. He is now 
attempting to pay the debt as well as he can, in preparing the present work. 



26 Ltfe and Times of jStlas Wright. 



Chapter IX. 

MR. WRIGHT AND LOCAL OFFICES. 

Under the old Constitution of 1777, justices of tlie 
peace and surrogates were appointed by the Grovernor 
and Council of Appointment. Mr. Wright's preceptor 
and friduid, Judge Skinner, was not only a State Senator, 
but was also a member of this Council, wielding an 
extended political influence. It was both easy and 
natural for him to seek opportunities to show his appre- 
ciation of the character and talents of his late student, 
whose noble and excellent qualities he had often men- 
tioned with great aj^parent satisfaction, and to promote 
his interests. Mr. Wright had not been long established 
in his profession when he received, unsolicited by him, 
commissions for these offices. They were botli naturally 
connected with his profession. Both are best exercised 
by those who understand the law. From the time of 
receiving these commissions until he entered the State 
Senate he performed the duties of both to the entire sat- 
isfaction of every one. They were of little pecuniary 
value to him, neither producing fees to the amount of 
$100, and the latter, probably, not one-half of that sum. 

On the death of Dr. Campbell, who liad long held and 
faithfully discharged the duties of Postmaster of Canton, 
Mr. Wright was appointed to supply his place. He 
was commissioned during the administration of President 
Monroe, by Postmaster-General Meigs. When the 
vacancy occurred, at the instance of his neighbors and 
friends, he took such stejDS as are usual in such cases to 
procure the appointment. It was the only office which 
he ever held which he personally sought to obtain. In 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 27 

doing so in this case lie only complied with the earnest 
solicitations of those who did business at the offi(H% boinii; 
persons of all political parties. Its duties were performed 
to the satisfaction of the whole community. The income 
derived from it, while he held tlie office, was very trifling. 
He continued to hold it until a short time l)efore the 4th 
of March, 1827, when he would become entitled to take 
his seat as a member of Congress. 

The patriotic spirit which animated the militia during 
the war of 1812, and which so largely contributed to the 
splendor of its conclusion, had not died out in nortln^rn 
New York when Mr. Wright settled there. In 1822, the 
young men of Canton, many of whom were skilled in tlie 
use of the rifle, and some of whom were practical deer- 
killers, desired to form themselves into a rifle company 
with uniforms. They unanimously invited Mr. Wkight 
to become their captain. Participating strongly in the 
feeling which impelled his father and brothers to volun- 
teer for the defense of Plattsburgh, during the war, he 
consented and was commissioned. The company was 
soon raised and equipped, they adopting a green uniform 
as most becoming to riflemen. He took peculiar pride in 
drilling and maneuvering this company, which had no 
superior at the annual review^s. He continued in com- 
mand until 1825. Other companies, consisting of cavalry, 
artillery, infantry and riflemen, were also raised, uni- 
formed and equipped. These, by a general order from 
the Adjutant-General's office, were grouped together and 
formed a " Kifle Regiment," in the organization of which 
he was elected its major, and in 1826 colonel. He was 
justly proud of this regiment, and those composing it 
were loud in their eulogies of their colonel. A large por- 
tion of them, without distinction of party, voted for him 
the fall when lie was first elected to Congress. 

In 1827, the officers of the Forty-ninth Brigade and 
Twelfth Division of the Militia of New York, with great 



28 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

unanimity, elected liim brigadier-general. In tlie fall of 
1828 lie reviewed liis brigade. By his candor, frankness 
and cordial manner he won the hearts of most of those 
composing the brigade. Many of those who differed 
from him, politically, became his supporters at the 
November election, when he was re-elected to Congress. 
From this time, for near twenty years, liis progress was 
onward and uj^ward, until treachery of professed politi- 
cal friends caused his defeat when nominated for re-elec- 
tion SIS Governor, to the infinite regret of nearly the entire 
democracy of the Union, and of many who had not acted 
with him politically. His sudden death, in less than a 
year, prevented his rising and being made the successor 
of President Polk, as was earnestly desired by the great 
body of the American people. 



Life anu Tlue;s of Sila;s Win gut. 29 



Chapter X. 

NOMINATION AND CANVASS FOR THE STATE SENATE. 

Under tlie Constitution of 1821, tli(3 State was divided 
into eight Senate districts. The fourth was conqDOsed of 
the counties of Washington, Warren, Saratoga, Mont- 
gomery, Essex, Clinton, Franklin, Hamilton and St. Law- 
rence. Each district was entitled to four Senators. At 
the session of 1823, Archibald Mclntyre, of Montgomery, 
John Cramor, of Saratoga, Melancton Wheeler, of Wash- 
ington, and David Erwin, of Franklin counties, repre- 
sented the district in the Senate. A Senator to supply 
the place of Mr. Erwin was to be elected in November of 
that year. Allen R. Mooers, of Clinton, was nominated 
by the federal party, and Mr. Wright by the democratic 
or republican. Out of this nomination and its incidents 
sprung the only imputations of l^ad faith ever made 
against the latter. He was accused of making a pledge 
on the subject of the electoral law and violating it. 

From April 12, 1792, a statute of the State had pro- 
vided for the appointment of presidential electors by the 
Legislature, in November, previous to casting their votes. 
Similar laws existed in many States. In some they were 
elected by the people, usually by general ticket, but some 
by districts, some by majority, and others by a ]3lurality 
of votes. The Legislature to be elected in 1828, including 
the twenty four Senators whose terms of office had not 
expired, would, under this law, elect presidential electors 
who would vote for the President for the tenth term. 
Some discussion was had in this State concerning changing 
the mode of selection from legislative appointment to an 
election by the people. Taking power from the few and 



30 Life and Times of Silas Wihoht. 

distributing it to the many was a popular thought, and 
uK^t ^yith few dissenters. The only question w^as one 
involving the general ^^rinciple, where the power of acting 
should be vested. The State, by an immense majority, 
had just decided this very principle by abolishing the 
Council of Revision and Appointment, and taking 
from the Grovernor a very large proportion of his patron- 
age and giving it to the people, making most of the offices 
elective. It required no profound reflection to under- 
stand that the masses of the people would approve taking 
from the Legislature and conferring upon the people the 
election of electors of President and Vice-President. 
The question of how they should be elected, whether by 
general ticket or by districts, requiring a majority or 
plurality to elect, had hardly been considered at all. The 
majority principle, in nearly all cases of election, was 
th(Mi almost uniformly and firmly established in all IS^ew 
Ennland. 

It is believed that nowhere, in making nominations 
for the Legislature, in the fall of 1823, were resolutions 
passed on the subject of an electoral law of any descrip- 
tion, and most certainly none dictating in wliat manner 
or what shoukl constitute an election. Had details been 
gone into, a great diversity of opinion would have been 
developed. 

It had been the practice of the republicans, in the Fourth 
Senate district, for the nominating convention of one year 
to determine and declare from what county the next 
nomination should be made, leaving that county, if no 
convention should be called, to name and present a can- 
didate the next year. The convention of 1822 had 
decided that in 1823 the candidate for the Senate should 
be selected from St. Lawrence county. A convention was 
accordingly called in that county, and Mr. W right was 
duly nominated. Although made late in the fall, infor- 
mation of his having been nominated was sent to every 



LiFt: AXD Times of Silas Wnigbt. 31 

county in the district, and duly cinnounced in tlic^ demo- 
cratic pa.i)ers. This convention passed no resolutions 
concerning a change in the electoral law, nor did it ask or 
receive any pledge from its nominee on any subject what- 
ever. At that time there was no democratic paper in St. 
Lawrence or Franklin counties. The PlattsLurgh Repub- 
lican, on the 25th of October, 1823, announced the nomi- 
nation in these words : 

" Senatorial Convention. 
"At a meeting of republican delegates lV<>in the difterent 
towns in the county of St. Lawrence, at Canton, on the 11th of 
September, 1823, Hon. Ansen Bailey, Chairman, and D. C. Jud- 

son Secretary ; 

'' Eesolved, unammo^cslt/, that Silas WitKiUT, Ji;., be recom- 
mended to the electors of this senatorial district as a suitable 
candidate to supply the place of the Hon. David Erwin in the 
Senate of this State." 

The friends of the federal candidate, under th(^ siipi)o- 
sition that there were so many candidates for the presi- 
dency—Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, Adams and Crawford- 
thought that there must be a very large majority against 
the latter. If so, they could prejudice Mr. A¥ right by 
creating the belief that he was for Crawford. They, 
therefore, published throughout the district that he was 
a supporter of Mr. Crawford. Knowing tliat most of the 
voters desired to change the electoral law from legisla- 
tive appointment to election by the people, they also 
proclaimed that Mr. Wright was opposed to any change. 
These two assumptions were calculated to defeat him and 
secure the election of Gen. Mooers. The following article 
from the Plattsburgh Republican of the twenty-hfth of 
October, discloses the objects of the friends of Mooers in 
making these imputations, and why they were not j)ut 
forth at an earlier day : 



32 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" Federal Misrepresentations of our Senator. 

" The federalists attempted to aid their Senator by misrepre- 
senting" the opinions ot" Mr. Wright ; and they resorted to this 
unmanly course after they thought it was too late to get a refu- 
tation of their falsehoods before the public. It, however, has 
arrived in time. 

" The federalists, in setting up Allen II. Mooers in opposition 
to the fair rights of St. Lawi'ence, and in misrepresenting the 
opinions of Mr. Wright, have shown a want of common honesty 
and of good faith to a neighboring county. 

" The following letter is from the secretary* of the republican 
convention which nominated Mr. Wright, and bears date 
Ogdensburgh, Oct. 25, 1823 : 

" ' Sir. — ^The federal nomination of a Senator in your county, 
in opposition to Mr. Wright, would not have called for any 
special notice, were it not for some unfounded assertions, or 
suggestions, in relation to liim. 

" 'If talents of a respectable character, integrity unimpeach- 
able, and sound and correct republican principles, entitle a man 
to public confidence, Mr. Wright has strong claims. That he is 
the supporter of Mr. Crawford is untrue. Viewing the strife 
between the friends of the different candidates for the presi- 
dency as resulting from a choice of men merely — -not being 
aware at this time that any particular set of measures or course 
of policy is to be pursued in case of the election of one candi- 
date which would not be by the other — he has not thought it 
became him, in the situation in wliich he is likely to be placed, 
to commit himself by any })ledge as resulting from his individual 
partialities or prejudices. His friends here are satisfied with this 
course ; indeed, Avitli most of them, myself among the number, 
it is esteemed the only correct and proper course. It is perhaps 
due to him to say, that Mr. Crawford is not his favorite candi- 
date ; but should he ever be called upon to act in a public 
capacity, lie will be governed exclusively by a regard to the 
public interests and the support of republican principles. 

" 'On the other topic of their opposition to him, I am able to 

*Hou. David C. Judson, who still lives, in 1874. 



LlFK AND TniRS OF StL.\S Wh'KllIT. 

speuk decisively. lie is and lias been, since tlie sulijin-l was tirsl 
agitated, tiie decided and open advocate of tlie election of 
electors of President by the peo[)le by general ticket. This is a 
settled o[)inion of his, which, as he this day-observed to nie, no 
circunistances could induce liini to alter or to refrain from sup- 
porting, 

" 'The nomination having been conceded to this county by the 
other parts of the district — it having been made at a convention 
of delegates in which the wdiole county was represented, with 
entire unanimity, and it being I'eceived among us with general 
approbation, more so than any other which could have been 
made, we were not aware that any exertions on our part were 
necessary, furlher thau to make the nomination known.' " 

Here we have an exact account of the whole matter by 
a highly honorable man, an actor in the affair, and writ- 
ten and published at the time. There was certainly no 
pledge, although there was a distinct avowal of his views 
and feelings. Although Mr. Crawford was not his 
favorite candidate, he refused to commit himself against 
him, but would, if called upon to act, be exclusively 
governed by a regard to the public interests and the sup- 
port of republican principles. The correctness of this 
sentiment no one can question. 

On the subject of the electoral law, he was and had 
been an open advocate of electing electors of President 
by the people, and by general ticket. He declared before 
the nomination, and on the day Mr. Judson wrote, that 
he was for thus electing them, and that no circumstances 
could induce him to alter or to refrain from supporting- 
such a law. This declaration of fixed opinions was in no 
sense a "pledge." Mr. Judson did not seek a pledge, 
nor was one given. His and Mr. Weight's opinions 
harmonized. Under such circumstances, no one needed 
or thought of a pledge. Mr. Judson communicated to 
the pul)lic a denial of the assumptions of the federalists, 
and strengthened it by stating facts and circumstances 
3 



34 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

personally known to liini. No one acquainted with liim 
will doubt the truth of whatevta- lie may say, or question 
liis intentions or ability to report accurately whatever 
occurred. 

It will be observed that these publications were made 
at the time to repel the accusations, made at a late stage 
of the canvass by his adversaries, that he was a Crawford 
man and opposed to changing the electoral law. They 
served that purpose, and cannot be tortured into any- 
thing else. 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 35 



Chapter XT. 

MR. WRIGHT ELECTED TO THE STATE SENATE. 

Tlie vote at the election in November, 1823, cleai-ly 
showed that the usual party lines were not drawn. To 
a casual observer, it would seem that local questions had 
prodnc(^d their usual results. But, in fact, the different 
counties cast their votes principally with reference to the 
state of the knowledge of the voters coiicerning the 
candidates, and their supposed opinions and preferences 
among the aspirants to the presidency. Clinton, Essex, 
Franklin, Saratoga, Warren and St. Lawrence counties 
gave Mr. Wkiciht majorities, Washington, Hamilton 
and Montgomery alone gave majorities for Gen. Mooers. 

St. Lawrence county gave Mr. Wright 1,419 votes, and 
Allen R. Mooers, 20. The town of Canton, where Mr. 
Wright resided, gave him 19D, and Jason Fenton, an 
old democratic friend of his, residing in Madrid, 1, which 
was cast by Mr. Wright himself. Mr. Wright received 
every vote in his town but his own. He was declared 
elected by a majority of 1,316 votes. 

The vote in St. Lawrence, and especially in Canton, 
shows the impression that the young lawyer had made 
upon the people. The vote in favor of his adversary did 
not average one to a town in his county. He was then 
only twenty-eight years of age, and was probably the 
youngest man who had then ever been elected to the 
Senate. This election made him, not only a Senator to 
participate in enacting laws, but in virtue of that office 
he became a member of the highest judicial court in the 
State, the Court for the Correction of Errors, which 
reviewed cases from the Supreme Court and Court of 



36 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Chancery. Tliis constituted him a member of a tribunal 
in which the judges of the Supreme Court and the 
Chancellor sat, with many venerable and learned men 
as Senators. It has never been suggested by his brethren, 
or by the members of the bar, that he did not here per- 
form his duty as satisfactorily as any other Senator. He 
did not attemjit to become a leader in this court, but con- 
tented himself with listening and voting as his sense of 
justice dictated. 



Life and Times of Sflas Wright. 37 



Chapter XII. 

IN THE STATE SENATE. 

The Senate convened on the first Tuesday in January, 
1824, at tlie Capitol in Albany. Mr. Wright attended, 
was sworn into office, and took his seat as a member. In 
that body were John A. King, Walter Bowne, John 
Leflerts and Jasper Ward, from the First District ; John 
Hunter, John Suydam, Stephen Thorn, James Burt and 
William Nelson, from the Second ; Edward P. Living- 
ston, Charles E. Dudley, James Mallory and Jacob 
Haight, from the Tliird ; Melancton Wlieeler, John 
Cramer, Archibald Mclntyre and Silas Wright, Jr., 
from the Fourth ; Alvin Bronsin, Thomas Greenly, Sher- 
man Wooster and Peiiey Keyes, from the Fifth ; Farran 
Strannahan, Tilly Lynde, Isaac Ogden and Latham A. 
Burrows, from the Sixth ; Byram Green, Jesse Clark, 
Jonas Eaiie and Jedediah Morgan from the Seventh ; 
Heman J. Redfield, John Bowman and James McCall, 
from the Eighth. Erastus Root was Lieutenant-Governor 
and President of the Senate, and John F. Bacon, Clerk. 

After Mr. Monroe's second election to the presidency, 
there occurred what was called the " era of good feeling." 
The federal party was disl^anded, and certain gentlemen 
of that party, in the State of New York, described as 
"high minded," assigned, in a formal paper issued by 
them, as a reason for this, that they "had no longer 
any ground of principle to stand upon." Although 
federalists were, wherever there were hopes of success, 
nominated for office, they were not presented as federal 
candidates. Some other name was assumed or conferred. 
Nearly everybody shrunk from the old name as if it 



38 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

would taint them. No federalist, as such, tJiought of 
securing the presidency, and no candidate of that party 
was in the field for election in 1824. None but demo- 
cratic candidates were brought forward. The competitors 
were all distinguished democrats, who had hjug stood 
high in that party, and had occupied exalted official 
positions. Three of them had held the three highest 
offices in Mr. Monroe's administration, from about its 
commencement. 

John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, was a man of 
high talents, extensive knowledge and great experience. 
His personal character was without spot or blemish. He 
had long been recognized as a democrat, and was a 
favorite with a large portion of the New-England people. 

William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury, was 
no less distinguished for talents, with great acqiurements 
and extensive experience in the affairs of the Federal 
Government. His character was above reproach. He 
had long been a leader in the democratic party, and was 
largely supported by democrats in the congressional 
caucus which nominated Mr. Monroe for his second elec- 
tion. He had a strong hold upon the democracy, and 
was looked upon as a leading candidate to fill the place 
of Mr. Monroe. 

John C. Calhoun was Secretary of War under Mr. 
Monroe. He had sustained himself in Congress with 
great success, and had displayed high executive talent 
in the War Department. His private character was 
above suspicion. His democracy was unquestioned. 

Henry Clay was a member of Congress, and for many 
years Speaker of the House. He possessed talents, had 
had long experience in government affairs, and had no 
superior in eloquence. His character was unstained, and 
he had always been a democrat. His manners were 
exceedingly popular. His friends were ardently attached 
to him. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 39 

Andrew Jackson liad always been a democrat, and his 
private cliaracter was irreproacliable. He had served in 
the Senate of the United States, and in high positions in 
Tennessee. His splendid achievement in closing tile war 
of 1812, at New Orleans, had won the public admiration. 
Although not looked npon as a very prominent candi- 
date for the presidency, still there was a wide-spread 
feeling in his favor, and especially among those who had 
served in the army, or j)erformed duty among the 
militia. The elements of his future great popularity 
then existed, bnt wei-e not concentrated or organized, 
except in limited localities. 

From among these candidates a president was to be 
chosen. At the commencement, Mr. Crawford united 
more democratic strength than eitlier of the others, and 
whose respective friends united in a common effort for 
Ins d(rfeat. Numerous plans were devised to accomplish 
this purpose. Newspapers were established to support 
the different candidates, but all agreeing in opposing Mr. 
Crawford. In New York, a change in the mode of 
choosing electors of President and Vice-President was sug- 
gested in 1828, and pul)lic opinion soon after adopted the 
proposition with much unanimity. It was the common 
impression that such a change would defeat Mr. Craw- 
ford. Mr. Adams' friends thought they saw his success 
in its adoption. Little thought was bestowed by either 
on the question of how and by wliat vote the electors 
should be chosen. The minds of the most active anti- 
Crawford men were too much occux)ied with defeating 
him by the change, to consider the details of a bill to 
accomplish it 

Joseph C. Yates was then Governor, and in his message 
to the Legislature, at the opening of the session, he 
called attention to the general subject of a change, dis- 
cussed it some, but did not specifically recommend one. 
He rather created the impression that he thought it best 



40 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

to leave the law as it existed, at least for the present. 
His presentation of the subject was not calculated to con- 
centrate opinion or accomplish any particular result. 
Although an excellent man, and had been a sterling judge, 
he manifested little talent in the organization and manage- 
ment of political parties. He was not calculated for a 
safe leader of masses of men. He vainly thought that 
all leading men were as pure and upright as himself, and 
that they would not assume to be exclusively actuated 
by one motive to accomplish one worthy object, when the 
sole purpose was to secure another and quite a different 
one. In the end he became the victim of his own honest 
credulity. He unwisely became separated from a, large 
portion of his old real friends, while he gained no new 
ones from among his former adversaries. 

Mr. Wright to Minet Jenison. 

"Albany, 2Uh Jantiary, 1824. 

" My Dear Sir. — I have delayed writing you, that I might 
inform you who was Surrogate and wliat to do with the papei-s. 
On Thursday last, Horace Allen was appointed to that office and 
on that day I wrote to him. I will, liowever, write you again 
when he sends me the requisite clerk's certificate. Li the mean- 
time I will fulfill tlie promise made to you, and to remind you 
that I want to hear from home. I have nothing of interest to 
communicate, as nothing of an important nature has yet been 
done in the Legislature. The electoral law h:is not yet been 
passed, although a bill on that subject is now before the Assem- 
Idy. It is all the talk and all the subject of interest here, and 
so much difference of opinion exists on the details of a bill, that 
the final ])assage of one is very doubtful. ' 

" The great questions of difference are whetlier the election 
shall be had by general ticket or by distiicts ; and again, whether 
a plurality or majority of votes shall elect. The great object 
seems, with all, to be, and ought to be, to preserve the strength 
of the State entire, and not have onedialf of the votes for one 
candidate and the other half for another, and thus neutralize the 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 41 

voice of this, the stroiigx'st State in the Union. I :ini yet iov 
the Yankee system to clioose by general ticket, and require a 
maiority of all the votes to constitute a choice, and thus liave 
something or nothing. Yet, what will be the result no one can 

tell. 

" I have been well since I left home, and am as well situated an<l 
contented as I could possibly have exjDected to be. I saw Mr. 
Day here, as he will have told you, and leannMl from him the 
residt of his business with the Olins. I was much pleased to 
see him, and spent the most pleasant evening since I liave been 
in Albany. 

" The great difficulty with mc, I believe, is that I cannot yet feel 
large enough, as many of my colleagues here seem to enjoy their 
consequence particularly well, and really I think their shadows 
on the sidewalks in State street must seem much longer to them 
than in their own country towns in the woods, like oui-s. How- 
ever, perhaps I am jealous, as I have felt much larger on the 
banks of the little river, after shooting a fish, than I can do in 
the Capitol, although I have a respectable seat there. Yet you 
know some of our friends predicted I should grow large enough 
before T rel urned, and so it may be. 

"I have written, every week, to some person in Canton, and 
shall continue to do so, and, as one, I ask you to write me, and 
give, among other things, the report of your every-day news, as 
it will be interesting. 

"Inform me how Parkiel comes on in collecting the tax, where 
is the Fish petition, etc., etc. Mr. Van Denheuvel arrived here 
last night most awfully canal warm, but T am sorry to inform you 
there is not the least possibility of our passing a law to authorize 
a survey. The canal fever is ebbing fast in the Legislature, and 
not a dollar, I venture to say, will be appropriated except that 
which must be devoted to the canals already begun, and a small 
allowance to them. Give my respects to our friends in Canton, 
one and all, and say I shall be pleased to hear from them. 

" In great haste, your friend, 

" S. WRIGHT, Jr. 
"Mr. MiNET Jenisont." 



42 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 



Chapter XIIL 

ORGANIZATION AND PROCEEDINGS IN THE ASSEMBLY. 

T]ie House was organized by electing Richard Goodell, 
of Jefferson county, who liad served with credit as a cap- 
tain in the army in the war of 1812, as Speaker, over 
James Tallmadge, who was denominated ' ' a people' s 
man," though claiming to be a democrat. This secured, 
on the committees, a majority of democrats. 

When the Governor' s message was read in the House, 
Mr. A. C. Flagg, of Clinton county, presented a resolu- 
tion, which, after a warm debate, was passed, referring 
the subject of changing the mode of choosing electors to 
a committee of nine. The committee appointed by the 
Speaker consisted of Messrs. Flagg, Wheaton, Mullett, 
Van Alstyne, Bellinger, Finch, Brown, Bowker and Ells, 
all of whom, excejDt Wheaton, Mullett and Finch, were 
supposed to be Crawford men. 

At the meeting of the committee, Mr. Wheaton offered 
the following resolution : 

'■'■Resolved, As the sense of tliis committee, that the right of 
choosing electors of President and Vice-President of the United 
States ought to be vested in the people of this State, by a law 
passed at the present session of the Legislature." 

Tliis was passed unanimously, except a negative vote 
by Mr. Van Alstyne. 
Mr. Wheaton also offered the following : 
" Resolved, That such election ought to be by general ticket." 

Mr. Flagg offered an amendment in these words : "and 
that a majority of all the votes shall be necessary to make 
a choice." 



Life and Times of Silas W right. 43 

This ameudment was adopted, and eventually the com- 
mittee reported a bill givin.i,^ the power of choosing 
electors to the people, but requiring a majority of all the 
votes given to make an election. 

In the House Mr. Finch oifered an amendment, declar- 
ing the person having the greatest number duly elected. 
It was voted down by sixty-four to fifty-two. In this 
shape, on the 4th of February, 1824, it passed with but 
live dissenting votes. 

A party had been some time forming, exclusively based 
upon the electoral law question, widely differing upon 
all other matters. It included the supporters of all the 
candidates, except Mr. Crawford. Except on this one 
question, their opinions were largely discordant. They 
even differed among themselves upon the details of the 
law which they thought ought to pass. Some anti-Clin- 
tonians feared that a general-ticket bill, by plurality, 
might give the State to Mr. Clinton. The friends of 
Mr. Clinton were naturally in favor of a general ticket 
and plurality. 

After the nomination of General Jackson by a demo- 
cratic convention in Pennsylvania, early in the winter of 
1824, Mr. Calhoun withdrew, as a candidate for the presi- 
dency, and became a supporter of the General, and sub- 
sequently became a candidate for the Vice-Presidency, 
and was elected by 104 majority over all other persons 
voted for. 

Mr. Adams' friends thought they saw in the general 
ticket and plurality system thirty-six votes for him. 

The friends of Mr. Clay believed that the district sys- 
tem, through the deservedly great influence of liis friends, 
General Peter B. Porter and others, would give their 
favorite the votes of western New York, and perhaps 
some elsewhere. 

Although there was no organized party in New York 
in favor of General Jackson, he had eminent friends, and 



44 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

among tliem Mr, Clinton, tliongli not generally known 
and believed, who were desirous of such a change in the 
electoral laws as would damage the prospects of Mr. 
Crawford. 

Under these circumstances, it is not strange that the 
people' s party was dissatisfied with the electoral bill as it 
passed the House. It was seized upon by that party to 
excite and extend the popular feeling on the subject of 
changing the mode of choosing electors. The ablest pens 
in the State were put in requisition. But generally they 
discussed only the abstract question of where the power of 
choosing electors should be lodged, avoiding those of the 
details where the real difficulties lay. The House com- 
mittee, with one exception, resolved unanimously that a 
change ought to be made at that session. Such was the 
common expression of nearly every member of the 
Legislature. The difi:'erences of opinion were few, if 
any, on this point. Divergencies began, on the next 
question, when members began to reflect and calculate 
their effect upon their respective favorites for the x^resi- 
dency; and it is not wonderful that no one was willing to 
take a step which would endanger the success of him 
whom he preferred and supported. 



Life a.\jj Times of S/r.AS Wright. 45 



Chapter XTV. 

PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE ON THE ELECTORAL LAW. 

Wlieii the House bill came to the Senate it was referred 
to a select committee, of which Mr. Dudley was chair- 
man. While it was in the hands of the committee, Mr. 
Ogden resorted to the unusual mode of forcing them, by 
resolution, to report. His resolution was supported by 
him, Burt, Burroughs and Cramer, and opposed by Mr. 
Wright, Suydam, Wheeler and several others. It was 
indefinitely postponed by a vote of twenty to nine. The 
connnittee soon after reported. The conclusion at which 
they arrived is as follows : 

"The committee are, therefore, of opinion, for the reasons set 
forth in this report, that it wouUI not he expedient to pass the 
bill from the Assembly, or any other bill changing the present 
mode of appointing electors of Fresideut and Vice-President of 
the United States; or, at least, until the efforts which are now 
seriously making in Congress to establish a uniform rule oi 
appointment, by an amendment of the Constitution of the 
United States, by which the people can elect by districts, have 
terminated in the adoption or rejection of such amendment by 
that body." 

On the tenth of March this report came up for con- 
sideration. Mr. Cramer moved to strike out this coiichi- 
sion, and to insert : 

" Resolved, That it is expedient to pass a law, at the present 
session of the Legislature, giving the people of this State the 
choice of electors of Pz'esident and Vice-President by general 
ticket." 

It was moved to amend this by adding "and by a 
plurality of votes." This w^as rejected by seventeen to 



46 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

foiirtciMi, IVfr. Wright voting against it. An amend- 
ment providing tliat the clioice should be made by con- 
gressional districts was moved and voted down, lie also 
voting in the negative. Mr. Cramer's resolution was then 
adopted, sixteen to lifteen, Mr. Weight voting for it. 
He then presented his views, in the shape of an amend- 
ment, by striking out all after the word "Assembly," in 
the second line of the last clause of the printed report, 
and inserting the following : 

" But they reconnneiid the pussage of :i law providing for a 
choice by the people, by general ticket, of a niunber of electors 
of President and Vice-President of the United States, equal to 
the number of representatives in the Congress of the United 
States to which this State shall be entitled at the time of an-y 
election of electors shall be held, locating the electors, so to be 
chosen in the several congressional districts, in such a manner 
that each congressional district shall have, residing within it, a 
number of said electors equal to the number of members of 
Congress to which said district shall be entitled at the time of 
the election, rc(piiring a majority of all the votes given in the 
State for such electors to constitute a choice ; and directing a 
meeting of the Legislature, at such time as shall be requisite, in 
any year when electors of President and Vice-President are to 
be chosen, to appoint two electors in the maimer now provided 
by law, corresponding to the two Senators from this State in the 
Congress of the United States, and to fill any vacancies that 
may exisl- in any of the congressional districts from a failure to 
elect, by a majority of votes, as aforesaid. And further recom- 
mend a repeal of the present existing law providing for the 
a})pointnient of the said electors, so far as the same may be 
inconsistent with a law containing the aforesaid provisions." 

Mr. Cramer proposed a substitute to Mr. Wright's 
amendment, the object of Avhich was to test the main 
question, whether the Senate would retain or change the 
present electoral law. The jiurport of the substitute 
was, in general terms, that it is- expedient to pass a bill 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 47 

at the present session, giving the clioice oi" electors to liie 
people. 

Mr. President decided that Mr. Cramer's [)r()})()siti()ii 
was not in order, until the other had been disposed oT. 

Mr. Nelson proposed to amend the amendment, by 
striking out all after the word "people" in the forty- 
seventh line, and also to strike out all that part of the 
rejDort which says it is not expedient to pass the bill from 
the Assembly. 

Mr. Nelson observed, that he should prefer to test the 
abstract question rather than to go into i\w details of 
any bill. If the Senate should determine to pass a law, 
the details of such bill would be a lit subject of consider- 
ation afterwards in the committee of the whole. 

Mr. Wright hoped the amendment would not prevail. 
It was a manifest absurdity in itself, and destroyed the 
plain diction of the concluding paragraph of the report. 
It was, perhaps, demanded of liim that, in oifering his 
proposition, he should state brielly the reasons by which 
he had been governed in relation to it, and the views by 
which he had acted in the general application of this 
question. He submitted the proposition, therefore, as 
the skeleton or outline of a principle which could after- 
wards be embodied into a corresponding form, and for 
the purpose of drawing out the opinions of the Senate, 
for he was entirely unprepared to say that he could vote 
for the repeal of tlie present law, unless he could know 
also the shape which the change would assuuK^ 

The reasons of my preference, said Mr. W. , for the 
features of the law proposed by the amendment I have 
had the honor to offer, are, in the first place, because in 
all my reflections upon this subject I have believed that 
a point beyond all others to be secured, in the passage of 
any law, is the preservation entire of the electoral vote 
of this State. It is not to be overlooked that, while the 
State of New York possesses the heaviest voice in the 



48 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

clioice of a President of any State in tliis Uni ^ 
voice, by division, may be easily neutralized, ( 
only equal to that of the weakest State; audi <. 

be particularly remembered that, while an electc ' 

is thus strong, it is only commensurate with oi 
and interests. Indeed, from the reasoning of ti 
mittee, it appears that our voice is much less, in ^'- 

tion to our jjopulation, than that of the small 
and I cannot believe, said Mr. W., that any me- • 
this Senate will disagree with me in the nece 
keeping that voice entire, and thus of command] i 

intluence, in the choice of a chief magistrate of the 
which our interests demand and our duty to o 
requires. This, said Mr. W., is not the only con^:id'jra- 
tion which, as republicans, urges us to effect this in the 
passage of a law regulating the choice of our presidential 
electors. Were we legislating for the State of New York 
only ; were this State alone interested in keeping our 
electoral vote entire, much of the importance of doing 
so would be lost. But, sir, every State in the Union has 
a deep interest upon this subject. The great body of the 
republican party are interested; they have the right to 
demand of us the exertion of our whole strength ; nor 
can we as republicans (and such we profess and are 
proud to be) in justice withhold it, or pass any law 
which shall render probable, or even morally certain, its 
division and diminution, 

- Two distinct propositions, regulating this choice, have 
been considered by the committee. One by general 
ticket, a plurality of votes to constitute a choice, and the 
other a simple district bill. The tirst of these proposi- 
tions, said Mr. W., is entirely objectionable for two 
important reasons. First, because a law passed upon 
this principle would be morally certain to divide the 
electoral vote of the State. We might, indeed, in theory, 
suppose that an election by plurality would be equally 



Life and Timus o/-' Silas Wkigiit. 49 

certain, with an election by a majority of v^otHs, to result 
in the choice of an entire ticket of the 8aine political 
character ; and so it would if (?very elector at the })olls 
would vote for the same entire ticket. But the slightest 
experience proves they will not do so. Ev(^ry voter 
has his preferences, and he will change and divide the 
respective tickets to suit those preferences and to gratify 
his own partialities. The electors of this great State will 
not, like myself and many of my honorable friends in 
this House, so entirely attach their feelings to either of 
the candidates for the presidency as to absorb their 
preferences for the men of their acquaintance upon the 
several tickets in the market. In an election under this 
proposition, the electors, voting for a ticket containing 
the names of thirty-six candidates, cannot be expected 
to act with a full understanding of, or acquaintance with, 
the persons for whom they vote, when those persons are 
located in the several congressional districts of the State. 
They will consequently compose a ticket for themselves, 
from the names upon each ticket, of men they approve, 
and thus divide entirely the electoral vote. If proof is 
wanted that this will be the effect, look at the respective 
counties of the State that elect three, four, hve or more 
members of the other branch of this Legislature. How 
often do these counties divide their vote in that House < 
How often, in those counties, under the plurality system, 
do they elect part of the one political ticket and part of 
the other? Look at the county of Washington, with 
four members in that House, equally divided, and conse- 
quently with no political representation. Look also at 
Saratoga, with two on the one side and one on the other, 
and at the city and county of New York, with seven ou 
the one side and three on the other. Are not these coun- 
ties, in part or in whole, politically neutralized ? Can it 
be expected, then, that a ticket containing the names of 
thii'ty-six electors upon one ballot would not be divided 1 
4 



50 Life and Times of ^"^ilas Wright. 

Can it be reasonably supposed that such a ticket, com- 
posed of persons in every p[ir(; of the State, would be 
kept enth-e, and that, too, when tiree, four or live tickets 
will with certainty be run ? And here, although we are 
passing a general law, it is impossible to discuss the ques- 
tion without reference to the coming presidential election. 
Can any man, at this time, promise himself that a less 
number than three will enter the lists at the time of the 
election 'i And if but three candidates are then insisted 
on, that number of tickets for electors must be presented 
in this State. And is any man so sanguine as to believe 
that, with this number of tickets, any one can be certainly 
elected % Is it credible to suppose, that while a political 
struggle in a single county seldom fails to produce a 
divided election, that division and subdivision would not 
exist in a ticket composed of thirty-six persons scattered 
over this extensive State 't Would not tlie natural and 
necessary consequence be the election of some of the 
most popular men upon each of the several tickets, and 
that, too, with greater certainty when the struggle is 
merely a preference for men? But, said Mr. W., this 
supposition is far better than the fact. It is at this time 
impossible to predict that a less number of candidates 
than four will be presented at the time of the election. 
And what is still more objectionable in this form of law, 
we invite, by it, every ambitious, aspiring man to enter 
the lists for this high office. We invite every daring poli- 
tician, who is vain enough to put his fortunes at hazard, 
to place himself among the lists of candidates, to get up 
his electoral ticket, and run his chance of electing part, 
if not the whole of that ticket, by the fraction of the 
electors of the State who may chance to prefer his eleva- 
tion. 

The second and insuperable objection to a general plu- 
rality law, said Mr. W., is that it empowers a small 
minority of the electors of the State to control its electo- 



Life and Timks of Sii.as Wkkuit. 51 

ral vote. Take the iiustaiice of three sepaiute ticket.s Un- 
these i)resideiitial eh^otors, aiul a, mere fraction over oiie- 
tMrd of the electors of the State can, wiekl this i)ii})()r(aiit 
expression ; increase the number of candidates, and you, 
in the same ratio, diminish the fraction that is to bc^ re})- 
resented in our electoral college. And is any member ol' 
this House willing thus to dispose of this hnportant intlu- 
ence'^ Is any member of this Senate willing that the 
thirty-six votes of New York, in the choice of a chief 
magistrate of this Union, should be wielded by one- 
fourth or one-hf th of its population ; that this important 
expression should be anything less than the expression 
of a majority of the electors of the State? Who, sir, 
can assure us that some particular interest, mercantile, 
agricultural, manufacturing or commercial, may not 
unite their exertions, and by their combined efforts, 
under such a law, seize and control our electoral vote '. 
No man, sir, can give tliis assurance. Such combinations 
would be formed. Every section and contending interest 
would be put in requisition, and the heavy and combined 
interests of the State Avould not be represented. Thus, 
then, sir, we see that under this proposition the electoral 
vote of this important State must be divided, neutralized 
and destrf)yed, or, if kept together, that only a minority 
of the State can be represented. 

The principles of a district bill, it is confessed, are 
more democratic than those of any other proposition. 
Under such a law, every section of the State would be 
equally represented ; every interest would be properly 
and proportionably felt ; and every elector could act 
understandingiy, in the vote he would give. But a suffi- 
cient objection to this system is, that the time never can 
occur wlien the thirty-four congressional districts of this 
State will be all of one political sentiment. And it must 
ever be here, under such a law, that a disputed election 



52 Life and Times of Silas Wjught. 

would be a division of our strength and a destruction of 
our electoral vote. 

What, then, said Mr. W., would be the effect of the 
proposition now uj)ou your table 'I Would it not neces- 
sarily be to restrict the number of candidates to two, so 
far as this State is concerned, or else render the pros- 
pect of an election by the people of any of the electors 
hopeless ? And, sir, when the candidates are thus 
restricted, where is the difference between plurality and 
majority 'i What would be a plurality in the one case 
must be a majority in the other. 

But if the electors of the State will not, by their votes, 
determine the wish of the majority, then where is that 
wish to be better ascertained than by the majority of 
their representatives in both Houses of the Legislature % 
Is it true, sir, that the voice of the majority of these 
Houses, jointly expressed, does not express the voice of 
a majority of the people of the State \ I cannot believe 
that in the short period of one year (and within every 
such period the most numerous branch is elected) the 
representative forgets the will of his constituents. I 
cannot believe that in that period the Legislature ever 
ceases to express the wishes and interests of a majority 
of the State. And then, sir, this proposition would 
ascertain thatmajcjrity, in case the people, by their votes, 
did not declare it. 

Another reason for the preference of the j^i'oposition 
now before the Senate, said Mr. W., is that it provides 
for the appointment by the Legislature of the two elec- 
tors corresponding to the two Senators. These electors 
represent the State sovereignties, carried into our electoral 
colleges, and consequently ought not, in strictness, to 
be chosen by the people. It will be recollected that the 
organization of our government is one of checks and 
balances. The Senate, composed of an equal representa- 
tion from each State, are the guardians and representatives 



Life and Tjmks of Silas Wright. 53 

of the State sovereignties, while the House of Representa- 
tives, the popular branch, are the immediate represen- 
tatives of the peoj)le individually. 

These are to act as checks upon each other, and to 
prevent the undue influence of either. And that these 
difi\3rent representatives were intended to be carried into 
the electoral colleges in the same proportion, and with tiie 
same influences that they exert in the National Legisla- 
ture, will be evident from the fact that, as is stated l)y 
the committee in their report, this representation in our 
electoral colleges produces an inequality between the 
large and small States in no other way accounted for. 
And, if I am right in this, there is no more propriety in 
giving the choice of these two electors to the j)eople, than 
there would be in giving the choice of Senators to them, 
which is forbidden by the Constitution of tlie United 
States. And may there not, sir, be a propriety and 
necessity in this? Is it impossible that jealousies and 
differences may arise between these two branches of our 
National Legislatui'e, and that these Jealousies and differ- 
ences may be made the important questions in the choice 
of a President ? Is it of all things the most improbable 
that the sovereignties of the States may become the suIj- 
ject of political feeling in our electoral colleges ? And 
should they become so, is it not only proper, but highly 
imjjortant that they should there be distinctly repre- 
sented? And will not that representation then form 
exactly the same proportional clieck which it was to 
form in the organization of the government ? Is it asked 
why this designation has not before been made ? 1 
answer, because, hitherto, all the electors of this State 
have been chosen by the Legislature, and, consequently, 
such designation has not been necessary. 

It may be objected to the proposition, which I have 
had the honor to offer, that the provision for the 
meeting of the Legislature is an unnecessary increase of 



54 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

expense in the appointment of our presidential electors. 
But it will be observed that tlie passage of a law upon 
the princij)les contained in that provision will not increase 
the expense attendant upon the present mode of appoint- 
ment. The election, })eing held at the time of holding 
the annual State elections, costs nothing, and the meeting 
of tlie Legislature, under that, will cost no more tlian 
under tl\Q present law ; therefore, while it will not be a 
saving, it will not be an increase of expense. 

The law proposed by this proposition is further to be 
preferred, as lieing the only one which the time allowed 
by the law of Congress for making the election will per- 
mit to be carried into effect. It will be recollected that 
the electors are by that law required to meet on a day 
certain, and give their votes, which must be not more 
than thirty-four days from their election or appointment. 
This renders it extremely difficult to hold an election in 
a State as extensive as ours, to procure a return and can- 
vass of the votes, to notify the electors, selected as they 
must be in almost every county in the State, and to give 
them time to assemble within the short period of thirty- 
four days. The law proposed in the amendment upon 
your table might, in some degree, relieve this difficulty, 
by directing the meeting of the Legislature at as early a 
period after the election as possible, and making it the 
duty of some member of the Legislature from each county 
to be the bearer of the votes of his county to the office 
of the Secretary of State, where they are to be canvassed. 
It will be found that the engrossed bill from the Asseijibly 
is in this particular palpably defective. The bill requires 
the clerks of ih.e respective counties to mail the certificate 
of canvass of their counties on Thursday of the week ; 
that if these certificates do not reach the Secretary of 
State by the Monday following, he shall send special 
messengers to the respective counties for the same, and 
that, on the Monday following, i\\i^ State Canvassers shall 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 55 

proceed to canvass sncli of tlie votes as may have been 
received, and from such canvass to prononnce the choice ; 
thus only allowing fonr days for the votes to come from 
the extremes of the State, only seven days to send a special 
messenger to any part of the State and for that messen- 
ger's return, and only eleven days from the time the 
clerks of the counties are bound to make their certificates 
until the canvass of the votes in tliis city. This pro- 
vision, said Mr. W., is too palpably absurd to need com- 
ment, and the consequences of holding an election under 
this law must be, that the votes from the remote counties 
in this State would not be received or taken into the 
canvass. It should also be recollected that, if the mem- 
bers of the Legislature are required to bring the votes of 
their respective counties, it will save an expense of special 
messengers nearly equal to that of the members of the 
Legislature to and from the place of meeting. 

These, sir, are some of the reasons which have inclined 
me to prefer the proposition now upon your talkie to any 
which I have yet heard, or which I have myself been able 
to diivise. 

I am free to subscribe to much of the reasoning of the 
committee in their report. I l)elieve the objections they 
have made to the various systems they have examined 
well taken. But I cannot tnink they have derived the 
correct conclusion from that reasoning. It is, I believe, 
sir, a fixed principle in free governments, that the people 
should themselves exercise every right which can be as 
safely exercised by them as by delegates by them 
appointed. And I must think, under the provision of the 
proposition now before the Senate, the great body of the 
electors of this State may as safely choose their electors 
of President and Vice-President as to delegate their 
appointment to their representatives in the State Legisla- 
ture, and if as safely, then much more properly. 

I have now, sir, offered every reason for sulmiitting the 



56 Life and Times of Silas Wiught. 

proposition upon your table, and for my preference to 
it ; and I must add, that I believe the present existing 
law far preferable to any system which shall be calculated 
to divide the electoral vote of the State. In this, sir, I 
know the Senate will agree with me ; and I most sincerely 
hope, however any gentleman may differ from me in the 
provisions of a law to accomplish this object, that we shall 
proceed calmly and frankly to discuss a subject of this 
deep interest and importance. 

Much, sir, said Mr. W., has been said on the subject 
of our responsibility to our constituents. I am not 
unmindful of that responsibility. I am aware that every 
member of this House rests under the same responsibility, 
and must account to his constituents for the course he 
shall pursue in relation to the bill. But, sir, I protest 
against acting under that popular enthusiasm which it 
has been the object of designing individuals to excite. I 
disclaim all connection with frenzy which would cut to 
pieces and destroy the electoral vote of the State of New 
York to gratify what is falsely called the wish of the 
peojDle. I too well know iny constituents, sir, to believe 
they would justify me in promoting the passage of any 
law which should fritter away the voice of this State in 
the choice of a President of tliis Union. No, sir, they 
would sooner retain the present law unaltered ; nor can 
I consent to vote for any law which sliall have this effect. 

After ample discussion a vote was taken upon Mr. 
Weight's projiosed amendment, which found little favor 
in the Senate. It received only three votes besides his 
own, to wit, Bronson, Mallory and Stranahan. 

Mr. Bronson, who was a Clay man, says he voted for 
the proposition in order to have New York present an 
undivided front, and command her rightful influence, 
commensurate with her population, in the election of 
President and Vice-President. Others may have given 
their votes to secure like results. 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 57 

The vot > on tlio anu'iidment proposed hy Mr. Redfield, 
to elect by congressional districts, was as follows : 

Ayes — Burt, Cramer, Earll, Gardiner, Greenby, Morgan, Ogden, 
Redfieia, Thorn, Wlieeler— 10. 

JVai/s — Bowman, Bowne, Bronson, Burroughs, Chirk, Dudley, 
Green, Haight, Keyes, Lefferts, Livingston, Lynde, Mallory, 
McCall, Mclntyre, Nelson, Stranahan, Suydam, Ware, Wooster, 
Wright — 21. 

These various votes were given after full discussion 
and ample deliberation. There was no other mode of 
electing proposed, or, apparently, thought of. After so 
much discussion, considering the extent and intensity of 
the excitement in and out of the Senate, there was no 
expectation, or even hope, that these votes could be 
changed, or any new proposition presented or adopted. 
Harsh words, crimination and recrimination, and impeach- 
ment of motives had accomplished their usual results. 
Under such circumstances, men seldom, if ever, change 
their positions, or lend a willing ear to the rebukes, or 
even persuasions, of their adversaries. All hope of carry- 
ing either of the rejected propositions had disappeared. 
No one manifested a disposition to yield his views, as 
shown by his vote, to favor the change proposed by others. 
Each had become fixed in his opiuions, like contestants 
in a battle, who honestly believing themselves riglit, 
become more intensified the longer and fiercer it rages. 
To yield at all under such circumstances would create a 
suspicion of weakness or bad faith. No one expected 
another to retrace his steps, to take a new departure. 
Everything pointing to such a result was hopeless. 

It was when matters thus presented themselves that 
Mr. Ogden moved to commit the bill and report to the 
committee of the whole. Mr. Livingston thereupon 
moved to postpone the further consideration of the 
report and bill to the first Monday of November, prior 
to which the existing law required the Legislature to 



58 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

appoint electors. Before taking a vote on this motion, 
Mr. Wright addressed the Senate on the subject, and 
his remarks are thus reported in the Albany Argus : 

"Mr. Wkight said lie had had the honor of offering a propo- 
sition giving to the people the choice of electors, hy general 
ticket, and hy ri, majority of votes, which he had su])posed the 
only safe system to be adopted. He had, however, been nnfor- 
tunate enough not to be able to induce but three members of 
the Senate to think with him, after all the reasons he could offer 
in favor of the proposition. A proposition had then been made 
to make the choice by districts, whicli, after being fully and 
ably discussed, received but two votes. And now, said Mr. W., 
we have rejected the proposition to choose l)y general ticket and, 
phirality of votes. Divisions have been taken upon all these 
propositions, and the name of every member of the House stands 
recorded upon our journals, with his vote on each proposition 
distinctly given. These, Mr. W. said, were all the propositions 
he had heard suggested, nor had he ingenuity enougli to suggest 
or devise a fourth. He, therefore, despaired of even a hope that 
the Senate could agree upon a law, as he did not believe that 
members trifled witli their votes upon this important subject, or 
were prepared to change their names as they already stood upon 
the journals. These being his views, Mr. W. said he should vote 
for the postponement, unless he could hear some reasons to con- 
vince him that his conclusions were not correct. The resolution 
(Mr. Cramer's) just taken could not be made effective, as both 
the majority and plurality systems, by one of which alone it 
could be made so, had been deliberately rejected, and he saw no 
good reason for spending more time on the subject." 

A vote was thereupon taken on the postponement, 
which resulted as follows : 

Ayes — Messrs. Bowman, Bowne, Bronson, Dudley, Earll, 
Greenby, Keyes, Lefferts, Livingston, Mallory, McCall, Redfield, 
Stranahan, Suydam, Ware, Wooster, Wright — 17. 

N^ays — Messrs. Burrows, Burt, Clark, Cramer, Gardiner, Green, 
Haight, Lynde, Mclntyre, Morgan, Nelson, Ogden, Thorn, 
Wheeler— 14. 



Life and Times of Silas Whkhit. 59 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE CLAMOR ABOUT THE POSTPONEMENT OF THE ELECT- 
ORAL VOTE 

The disposition made of the subject iiitensilied the 
excitement concerning the electoral law, and tended to 
strengthen the new party. The charge of forfeited 
pledges resonnded through the State. The seventeen 
senators who voted for the postponement were denounced 
as "infamoiis," and their names were printed in the 
papers of the "People's party," in broad, black letters, 
and those of Messrs. Wright and Mallory, who had 
voted for the general proposition of Mr. Cramer in favor 
of passing, at that session, a law giving the ^leople the 
choice of electors by general ticket, in very large black 
letters. Handbills, thus printed, were conspicuously 
placed in lawyers' offices, taverns, stores, groceries and 
other places. 

Mr. Wright was singled out as a special object of 
attack. He was hung, and often burnt in effigy ; and at 
Ogdensburgh he was hung and burned by the side of the 
village liberty-pole, on the banks of the Oswegatchie. It 
was claimed by his adversaries that he cheated the voters 
in making a pledge to secure his election, and had infa- 
mously violated it. In the vocabulary of liard epithets, 
there was scarcely one that was not applied to him. But 
it has been shown, and will be hereafter conclusively 
proved, that he made no pledge. If one had been given, 
as assumed, he gave no vote in violation of it. All who 
conversed with him understood that he was unchange- 
ably in favor of a change by a general ticket. To this he 
adhered to the last. The congressional district system 



60 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

commanded but two votes, in a Senate consisting of tliirty- 
two members. He had never said or intimated tliat lie 
would favor a general ticket with a plurality. No one 
pretended to have ever conversed with him on that sub- 
ject. Nor has any person claimed to have spoken with 
liim whether lie was in favor of electing by majority or 
plurality. This was left an open question, and, as such, 
he had the same right to decide it for himself, in favor of 
requiring a majority, as others had in favor of a plurality. 
It is not known, or believed, that one member of the 
Legislature entered the Capitol publicly committed on 
that subject. The people's party had no plank on this 
subject in their platform. Every member had the power 
to act as he chose concerning it, and was free to do so, 
untrammeled by party usages or resolves. Why should 
Mr. Weight be called upon to change his views, and leave 
Mr Cramer and others to enjoy and carry out theirs? 
They were all sworn to perform their duties according to 
the best of their ability. His motives were as much 
entitled to respect as theirs. It is undeniable — nay, it is 
conceded now — that the object of the Adams, Clay, Jack- 
son and Clinton men was to change a law of long stand- 
ing, to increase the chances of their favorites for the pre- 
sidency, and diminish those of Mr. Crawford, who, a few 
days before, had been nominated by a congressional 
caucus for the presidency. They wished to make a 
change to injure the competitor of their friends. They 
sought to deprive him of the advantage he had under the 
existing law, and to make a new one to accomplish that 
i:>ur230se. Making laws to confer special favors upon 
others has never been recognized as an American prin- 
ciple. If, as the law then stood, Mr. Crawford had an 
advantage, upon what principle of morals could his com- 
petitors claim the right to legislate him out of it 'i The 
Legislature had been elected to perform certain duties 
under the old law. They were by it required, on a cer- 



Life and Times of Silas Wukiht. 61 

tain day, to choose electors. The majority of them were 
democrats, and it was the general expectation that they 
would conl'orhi to the usages of that party, and choose 
ele(;tors favorable to its candidate, who should be pre- 
sented in the usual way. 

All the candidates but one, although claiming to ])e 
democrats, declined to submit their pretensions to the 
tribunal that had selected and presented Jefferson, Madi- 
son and Monroe, twice each, for the suffrages of the 
people, as democrats. The friends of these candidates 
denounced Mr. Crawford, who had been selected in the 
usual way, and confessedly a democrat of high character, 
and demanded that his friends should participate in 
making a law to legislate his prospects and hopes away; 
and denounced them with great bitterness because they 
would not consent to do so. Their right to demand Mr. 
Crawford's friends should yield the point was no greater 
than that of his friends to require them to yield. Neither 
had the least possible right to insist upon such a claim. 
If Mr. Crawford's adversaries had changed places with 
his friends, would they have yielded it to liim ? As his 
opponents, if they possessed the vantage ground would 
they have yielded it to him % 

Why the young, quiet, inoffensive Mr. Wright should 
be selected as the target for the shafts of the adversaries 
of Mr. Crawford can only be accounted for upon the 
ground that falsehood and calumny had secretly done 
their detestable work and could continue to be more suc- 
cessfully employed against him than older men more 
extensively known. He and his friends had the same right 
to claim that he was honest and sincere, in what he said 
and did, that they and others had. His record was without 
spot or blemish, and his character, in all respects, above 
reproach. Whether he was wise in his course is not the 
question. Was he honest and sincere ? Did he violate 
a pledge % Nearly all of those who then most loudly 



62 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

denounced Mm as dishonest, insincere and a violater of 
pledges, have since discovered their error and liave given 
him their hearty snpport for liigher positions. Mr. Ham- 
mond, in tlie last volume of his Political History of New 
York, withdrew the charges made in his second volume, 
as having been founded upon erroneous information, and 
tills relieves him from the odium formerly heaped upon 
him. In this volume, at page 50, he says : 

" It now affords us sincere pleasure to say, that we are con- 
vinced that we had formed an erroneous opinion of him, and that 
instead of being addicted to plot and contrivance he was frank 
and sincere ; and although we earnestly wish, that on the subject 
of the electoral law, and in the attempt to clioose, or rather the 
effort to avoid choosing, a Senator of the United States, his con- 
duct liad been different, we are entirely satisfied his motives were 
pure and lionorable. Our reasons for arriving at this conclusion 
are these : Mr. Wkigut honestly and sincerely believed, whether 
erroneously or rightly is not now a subject of inquiry, that tlie 
ascendency of the democratic party in this State and nation 
would best secure the liberties and promote the prosperity of the 
people. Hence, he regarded as a dereliction of duty any con- 
sent to support men, or measures, the consequence of which he 
had reason to apprehend would produce the overthrow, or cause 
a diminution of that party," 

Mr. Hammond refers to the evidence on which he 
changed his opinion concerning Mr. Wright. It con- 
sisted mostly of conhdential letters addressed to the late 
Judge Fine, of St. Lawrence county, by Mr. Wright; of 
these he says : 

"These letters afford internal evidence that the sentiments 
they contain were dii'ectly from the heart, and evince such an 
entire devotedness to the cause in which he was engaged, so total 
an absence of all selfish considerations, and such perfect disin- 
terestedness, and at the same time so much frankness, candor and 
liberality, even toward political opijonents, that we cannot for 
one moment believe that, on the occasion to which we have 



Life and Times of Stlas Whigiit. 63 

alluded, he was iiitiueiiced by any otlier motive than a desire to 
sustain and promote the great and paramount interests of the 
State and nation. His error, as a public man, if it be an error, 
in our judgment, arose from liis uniform devotion to the great 
interests of tlie l)arty to whicli he belonged, on whose ascend- 
ency, we have heretofore stated, he sincerely believed depended 
the prosperity of his country." 

He then indorses this remark of Grovernor Seymour : 

"Mr. WiMciiiT was a great man, an honest man ; if he com- 
mitted errors, they were induced by his devotion to his party. 
He was not selfish ; to him his party was everything — himself 
nothing." 

Mr. Wright fully believed, and acted on that belief, 
thiit if the State and Federal governments were not 
administered ujion purely democratic principles, which 
would restrain the action of those administering them 
within the clear boundaries of tlieii- Constitutions, both 
would ultinuitely fail in accomplishing the objects for 
which they were created. He often avowed this belief, 
which was the pole-star of his life. Fidelity to it ever 
governed all his actions. The ascendency of the demo- 
cratic party was the object of incessant laboi*. His own 
interests were ever made to yield to it, as Avill be here- 
after shown, on many occasions. 

The following lettei's to his trusted friend, Minet Jeni- 
son, clearly and truthfully show the motives which actu- 
ated him on the subject of the electoral law : 

Mr. Wkigiit to ]Minkt Jenison. 

"Albany, V2th Fehy., 1824. 

"Dear Sir. — I received last night, by mail, a letter from Mr. 
Joseph Barnes, inclosing the within draft in favor of Andrew C. 
Barton, which, I suj»i)ose, is intended to pay, so far, the judgment 
of Fisher against him. I have Avritten a receij)t on the back of 
the draft, whicli, if Barton will sign, you may give him the 
Langdon note, unless you know some good reason why it 



64 Life an^d Times of Silas Wright. 

sliould not be given up. I wish you to see Boynton sign the 
receipt, and then deliver the note to him or his order. I expect 
Mr. Barnes is to have it, but the draft will not authorize me to 
deliver the note to Barnes unless Barton directs it. If you have 
received the money on the note before you get this, it will be 
the same thing as the note, and need the same disposition. 

" I have nothing new to write, nor do I hear from you. Where 
is the letter I was to receive from you, Lem. and Day? Mr. Day 
lost one of his sons while here, I have learned, but which one I 
have not heard. How come you on with county meetings and 
the People's business ? I have heard that rather a farcical meet- 
ing was held at Canton lately. Tell our democrats to look out, 
and not let these new-fashioned republicans get too much the 
stait of them. They may depend upon it, Clinton is the meaning 
of all this. The electoral law has not yet been acted uj^on, 
but will before long, probably. In the meantime, my friends 
must not get suspicious of Winslow and myself until we act, 
and then, if we do not act right, it will be their duty to tell us 
of it. But if, in acting, we should not please the restless Clin- 
tonians and old federalists, even, of our own county, I should 
not myself be willing to take that as an evidence that we had 
acted wrong. But really, my friend, I do not find that being a 
grave Senator makes much difference with old Silas. As near 
as I am able to calculate, he is about the same thing yet, — gets 
mad, and scolds and sicears (I must say it, for it is true) about 
as easy as usual, and mixes about the same quantity of laugh 
with it. Remember me particularly to my friends there, and 
break out in a letter forthwith. I will, through you, now pro- 
mise a letter to old Lem. and Jose Barnes. 

" Yours till death, 

"S.WRIGHT, Jk. 
" To Mr. M. Jenison." 

"Albany, Wth March, 1824. 
" My Dear Sir. — Yesterday the Senate again committed one 
of those aristocratical acts which have so often characterized that 
body. The electoral law was again brought up on Monday morn- 
ing and occupied that House until three o'clock on Wednesday, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. ()5 

when it was postponed until tlie first Monday of November next. 
The first proposition was ofi^ered by me, that the electors should 
be chosen by general ticket and by a majority of votes, recurring 
to the Legislature in case no choice was made. This was debated 
until three o'clock Monday afternoon, and voted down 2*7 to 4. 
On Tuesday morning another proposition to elect by districts 
was made, and occupied all that day and the next day till noon, 
when it was voted down 21 to 10. Then another proposition to 
elect by general ticket and plurality of votes was made, and 
after much debate was also voted down 18 to 13. These being all 
the modes that could possibly be suggested, and all lost by con- 
siderable majorities, a motion was made to postpone the subject 
to the first Monday of November next, which was carried 17 to 
14. I am aware this result will make much noise, and I presume 
will excite much hard feeling against me; but I have done all in 
my power to procure what I believed would be a safe law, and not 
being able to efi^ect it, I voted to postpone the subject. The 
trutli is, Mr. Clinton and his friends are the most clamorous here 
for the alteration of the law, and have no doubt, if the law had 
been so altered as to let a plurality elect, he would now have 
been nominated as the federal candidate for president, and vio- 
lently supported in this State by all his old political friends. 1 
have acted on this subject as I believed was for the best interests 
of the democratic party of this State, and by that party it will 
be determined whether I have acted rightly, and by that deter- 
mination I am willing to be judged. I want to hear from your 
town meeting, and expected a letter to-day. I hope the feeling 
with which you wrote is allayed by a successful issue of that 
meeting, but I hope with fear. I shall be with you, I think, is 
a month. Kemember me to all my friends, and when you hear 
the political curses which will probably fall upon mo, laugh, and 
say they are the pay I deserve for putting myself out of my 
business. Look at The Argus and you will see the report of the 

proceedings. 

" In great haste, 

"S. WRIGHT, Jr. 
" Mr. MiNET Jknison." 

5 



66 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 



Chapter XVL 

FAILURE OP THE ATTEMPT TO CENSURE MR. WRIGHT FOR 
NOT OPPOSING MR. CRAWFORD. 

A feeble attempt was made to censure Mr. Weight for 
not opposing Mr. Crawford. Those making it soon saw 
that persisting in it would damage themselves. The facts, 
upon which, alone, it could be based and proved, neces- 
sarily showed that the course of those differing with him 
was dictated, not by a controlling desire to give the 
l^eople the choice of the electors, but their acts were 
designed to destroy the prospects of Mr. Crawford and 
promote those of his rivals. The attempted censure was 
not long persisted in. Although it had been announced 
at the time of his nomination, as stated by Mr. Judson 
elsewhere, that Mr. Crawford was not his favorite candi- 
date, he had stated that it did not become him to " commit 
himself by any pledges resulting from his own individual 
partialities or prejudices ;" "but should he ever be called 
upon to act in a piiblic capacity, he would be governed 
exclusively by a regard to the public interests and the 
support of reimblican principles." Nothing could be 
more frank or less selfish. From these avowals it is quite 
clear that he intended not to act exclusively upon his 
personal opinions and wishes, but to harmonize and act 
with his political friends in the support of democratic 
principles. His accusers acted upon a similar principle. 
They did so with reference to sustaining their respective 
political friends, and to support the principles which 
actuated them. In one thing they did not conform to 
the principle which controlled the action of Mr. Weight, 
He was ready, and did sacrifice his personal preferences 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. G7 

and conformed to the usages of the democratic jiarty. 
This X\\e:y refused to do, and each struggled to secure the 
election of him who had won their partialities. This 
principle was the controlling one governing theii' action 
throughout the entire controversy. They spurned the 
usages of the democratic party, which, from its organiza- 
tion during John Adams' administration, and which 
brought Jefferson and his successors into power, and, 
down to 1824, had commanded the respect of all support- 
ing that party. They refused to be bound by them, 
while each presidential aspirant challenged all his com- 
petitors, and entered the held of combat alone on his own 
account, except when a common purpose occasioned a 
union and concert of action to crush a dreaded rival, as 
in the Legislature of New York. The democratic usages 
which overthrew John Adams, sustained Jefferson and 
Madison in their conflicts with the federal party, and 
which enabled them to strangle secession and disunion in 
New England, were denounced as incipient treason, 
organized and combined to overthrow or crush our liber- 
ties. The old-fashioned efforts made to concentrate, 
combine and secure the triumph of the democratic party 
were denounced and stigmatized as the invasions of 
"King Caucus." Great valor was displayed infighting 
this imaginary king, and great guns and little guns united 
in firing hard words at him and his friends. The " king " 
was killed and few mourners attended his funeral, but a 
numerous-headed, irresponsible successor has so con- 
ducted affairs, that very many of those who charged and 
aimed the fatal guns which brought him to the dust, have 
loudly repented their want of appreciation of his useful 
and effective qualities. They are equally anxious to 
dethrone his successor for conceded faults and question- 
able action. 



68 Life and Ti3ies of Silas Whjght. 

Mr. Wright to Minet Jenison. 

"Albany, 2d Aprit, 1824. 

"My Dear Sir. — I can wiite you but one word. Your letter 
lias just come to hand, and the friendship you manifest gives me 
trouble. Not because I do not value it, but because the noise 
that is made in your neighborhood on my account gives you 
more trouble than it does me. I have not time to explain on 
the subject of the electoral law. Suffice it to say, I am satis- 
fied with my course, and can look any man in the face who 
blames me, with a knowledge of the facts, and tell him lie is 
not honest. That his blame is cast Avhere his conscience tells him 
it is not deserved, and that the clamor he creates is selfish, corrupt 
and wicked in its intent. I am sick of politics. Not because I 
have been abused by those whose abuse alone could compliment 
me, but because I have found no honesty in any party that pleases 
me. Yet I must tell you I have found some ten or twelve honest 
men who ai-e democrats to the bone, but who will not sell their 
birthright, and we have quarreled with all parties and now 
stand firm and undaunted on the brink of ruin, ready to sink, if 
fortune so determines, but not to say we have forfeited our faith 
and conscience to serve this man or that. My time is gone. 
Tell the St. Lawrence 'People' that I am ready, when the 
democracy of the county or the 4th Senate district ask it, to lay 
my honors at their feet and thank them for the use, and retire 
with all the content I entered on their business. This is truth, 
and when I get home I Avill do it, under that condition, with 
more joy than I shall again return to this city. But enough, I 
shall see you by the 20th, and in the meantime 

" I remain your friend, &c., 

"S. WRIGHT, Jr. 
"Mr. Minet Jenison." 



Life and Thies of Silas Wright. G9 



Chapter XVIL 

CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS IN 1824. 

For a long series of years, the democratic members of 
Congress, at tlie session before a presidential election, had 
held a caucus to nominate candidates to be supported hj 
the party. At these gatherings, the merits and prospects 
of presidential asj)irants were publicly considered and 
more or less discussed, and the concentrated action given 
to the world. This mode of selecting and presenting 
candidates had been common in State Legislatures, both 
with Reference to presidential candidates, and those to be 
supported for State offices, affecting a whole State. 
Tennessee and Pennsylvania had thus presented the name 
of General Jackson. The opponents of Mr. Crawford, in 
Congress, refused to go into caucus and submit t\um- 
claims to its determination. Each candidate feared that 
the friends of Mr. Crawford might form a combination 
with those of some other candidate and thus strengthen 
him and thereby weaken himself. If there should be no 
caucus no such purpose could be accomplished. The 
refusal to go into caucus, according to the usages of the 
party, was considered by the friends of Mr. Crawford as 
an act of bad faitli. They, however, vainly hoped that 
refractory members enough would attend to make [i 
majority if a meeting should be called. A notice was 
issued, calling one at the Capitol on the 14th of February, 
1824. There were then 262 Senators and Members in 
Congress. Of these, sixty-six attended the meeting. 
Benjamin Ruggles, a Senator from Ohio, was chairman, 
and El a Collins, of New York, secretary. William H. 
Crawford was unanimously nominated for President and 



70 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Albert Gallatin for Yice-President. Mr. Wright felt 
bound by this nomination, thus made in conformity with 
the usages of the democratic party. He believed it his 
duty to conform to the action of his political friends, 
taken in the ordinary way. Whatever his personal pre- 
ferences might be, he deemed it right to surrender and 
bury them, and sustain the nomination of his party, 
whether wisely or unwisely made. He did not attempt 
to set up his individual opinion against those of his 
friends, who, in the usual way, iiad presented candidates 
and had invited the democratic party to support them. 
From this time he was considered a supporter of Mr. 
Crawford, and went with the friends of that gentleman 
when theii- measures did not conflict with the views he 
had so often and frankly avowed on the electoral law. 

The friends of Mr. Crawford insisted that the friends 
of his competitors had manifested great unfairness, in 
refusing to conform to the usages of the democratic party 
to which they claimed to belong, by declining to go into 
caucus and submit the pretensions of all the candidates 
to the friends of all, and to allow them to select a com- 
mon standard bearer for the whole party. A candidate 
thus selected would be sure to be elected, as the old fed- 
eral party had lost its organization and had been dis- 
banded. The Crawford men claimed that they were 
acting strictly within the recognized usages of the demo- 
cratic party, and that their opponents were setting them 
at defiance, breaking up its organization and endangering 
its ascendency. They insisted that those who would not 
adhere to its usages were not, at heart, true democrats, 
and that those who sought to deprive, by legislation, a 
democratic candidate of the advantages which existing 
laws gave him, and to confer them upon those who refused 
to be bound by the time-lionored usages of the party, had 
no claims upon them for assistance. They said that those 
who thus set the usages of the party at defiance had no 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 71 

claims upon them for help or forbearance, and that, to a 
considerable extent, they were leagned with and were 
acting in subserviency with the old federalists. The times 
were thus made vocal with crimination and recrimination. 
During all this time the people's party, as they called 
themselves in New York, was increasing in numbers, 
without openly avowing any preference for any one of 
the presidential aspirants, but were open in their hostility 
to Mr. Crawford, although they professed to be, in fact, 
democrats in principle. They insisted that their contro- 
versy was exclusively concerning choosing electors. The 
sequel will show otherwise, or that their purposes were 
changed, as those of political men sometimes are. 



72 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter XVIII. 

REMOVAL OF DE WITT CLINTON AS CANAL COMMISSIONER. 

Prior to this removal, tlie two political parties in the 
State were respectively christened, by their adversaries, 
as "Bucktails" and "Clintonians," the former from a 
badge worn by the members of the Tammany Society in 
their caps, and the latter for their support of Mr. Clinton. 
Matters connected with the formation of the new Consti- 
tution, in 1821, had lowered the ascendency of Mr. Clin- 
ton's star, and resulted in the election of Governor Yates, 
in 1822, without opposition. But he still had numerous 
and powerful friends, who stood ready to serve him. 
Most of these hoped that a law choosing electors by 
general ticket and plurality would be passed, under 
which he might, amid the numerous candidates, secure 
a plurality of votes. Although these would not elect 
him, they would indicate his standing and influence in 
the State, and might lead to important and significant 
consequences. His friends were bitterly opposed to 
Mr, Crawford, and acted in concert with those of his 
competitors. Mr. Crawford's friends charged them with 
forming a coalition witli \A\q people's party to defeat 
him. They sought to make them openly support Mr. 
Clinton, or to cause a breach between them and his 
friends. In the former event it was expected to induce 
those Bucktails who were opposing Mr, Crawford to 
leave the people's party and join the friends of the latter, 
which woukl materially improve his prospects. If it 
produced a division between the Clintonians and people's 
party, the same object would be accomplished. The 
plan was plausible, being based upon the principle of 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 73 

divide and conquer. The division might be so extensive 
as to fully accomplish the desired result. It might be 
tlie means of defeating the enemies of Mr. Crawford, and 
giving him the thirty-six electoral votes of the State. 
The means of accomplishing this purpose was to remove 
Mr. Clinton from the office of Canal Commissioner, on 
political grounds, as Mr. Van Buren had been removed 
from the office of Attorney-Greneral, and as numerous 
other officers, high and low, had been removed by Mr. 
Clinton and his friends. The principle of action was 
not new, but had been long practiced upon in both the 
State and Federal governments. It has since been, and 
now is, practiced daily by both. On the last day of the 
session, a resolution was offered in the Senate, by Mr. 
Bowman, to remove Mr. Clinton from the office of Canal 
Conindssioner. The vote was immediately taken, with- 
out debate, and the question carried by the following 
vote : 

Ayes — Bowman, Bowne, Bronson, Burt, Dudley, Eavll, Green, 
Greenly, Haiglit, Keyes, Livingston, Mallory, McCall, Redtield, 
Stranahan, Thorn, Ward, Wheeler, Wooster, Wright — 20. 

Nays — Cramer, Mclntyre, Morgan — 3. 

In the Assembly it was concurred in by a vote of sixty - 
four to thirty- four, — Messrs. Wheaton, Tallmadge and 
others of the people's party voting in the affirmative. 

Notwithstanding the promising appearances of this 
movement, it failed to accomplish the purpose designed, 
to any considerable extent. It introduced a new 
element into the political complications in the State, 
which had been an enigma which few understood, and 
especially those residing at a distance. Out of this a 
new and popular side-issue was adroitly framed, which 
was managed with dexterity and skill. On the trial it 
was made to swallow up all others presented by Mr. 
Crawford's friends, however clear they might be in his 



74 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

favor. While it served to kill off some of tlie people's 
party who voted for the resolution, it enabled Mr. 
Clinton's friends to raise the cry of persecution. They 
insisted that he was a martyr, struck down by political 
bludgeons in the hands of wicked men. They claimed that 
he had been fiendishly pursued, when he was gratuitously 
serving the State in the completion of the great works of 
internal im^Drovement, of which his friends insisted he 
was the father. He was nominated and elected Governor 
by an immense majority, thus proving that his friends 
and the ]3eople' s party had coalesced, as the friends of 
Mr. Crawford had charged. 

The friends of Mr. Clinton denounced Mr. Wright for 
voting for his removal, and declared that it could neither 
be Justified nor palliated. They seemed to forget that it 
was made distinctly upon political grounds, and upon a 
principle that Mr. Clinton had often acted upon, and 
which they had justified. This principle is as old and 
wide-spread as political parties. Abraham Van Yecliten 
and Thomas Addis Emniett, as well as Martin Van Buren, 
had been removed from the office of Attorney- General. 
Rutgers Van Rensselaer and John Van Ness Yates had 
been displaced as Secretaries of State. A host of others 
had been removed in the same way. No party has ever 
existed, in this country, which has not displaced adver- 
saries and ajDpointed friends. Those who removed Mr. 
Clinton believed that he was their political adversary. 
The event proved that such belief was well founded. He 
harmonized with their enemies, and became their stan- 
dard bearer. It was well known that the removal was 
not made at all on personal grounds. No imputations 
were made upon him personally, and the removal did not 
imply any. It was evidence of but one thing — that, as 
political men, those who removed him deemed him a 
political enemy, whom they ought to remove purely upon 
political grounds, which would do him no injury as a 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 75 

citizen. It was doing by him as lie liad done by others, 
and as he wonld do by them if he had the power. His 
friends claimed that his public services had been so great 
that he should be exempt from the application which 
applied to other party men, which his adversaries denied. 
T. ey claimed that among political men the same rule 
should apply to all, and that his personal merit, however 
great, should not create an exception in his favor. They 
affirmed that they were not bound to search out the evi- 
dence of an officer's services and determine tlie extent of 
services which should create the exception, and that this 
had never been done by any party, but that the issue was 
not personal, but merely political, and had ever been so 
in such cases. Such were the grounds upon which Mr. 
Wright acted, and justified what he did. He went with 
his political friends, whose wisdom, experience and 
patriotism he respected, although the result proved that 
they had not accurately calculated the consequejice of 
their acts, at least to a great extent. That he acted from 
honest motives, with the intention of promoting the suc- 
cess of democratic principles, is now almost universally 
admitted. No selfish motive entered into the act, as is 
clear from the fact that in no way could he derive any 
personal advantage from it. 

Mr. Hammond, in his History, says : "In the Assem- 
bly, as well as in the Senate, nearly all the members 
belonging to the people' s party, who were supporters of 
Mr. Adams, voted for the resolution, while some of the 
Crawford men voted against it." The motives of the 
Adams men in this vote are not disclosed. It is probable 
that the dissenting Crawford men deemed the measure 
unwise and impolitic. 

On returning home, Mr. Wright found many of those 
who promoted his election dissatisfied. But nearly all 
the democracy approved his acts. In time the entire demo- 
cratic party and many others gave him their confidence 



76 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

and became his admirers and supporters. Even many of 
the leaders and most ardent of the people's party became 
his friends, and defended and justified his course upon 
the grounds above suggested. His vote for Governor is 
confirmatory evidence of the correctness of these con- 
clusions. His honor, and the uprightness of his inten- 
tions, his frankness and sincerity, were then proverbial. 
On these subjects he was then, as liis memory to this day 
is, cherished and made a common standard of comparison. 
To say of a man that he is "as honest, upright, frank 
and sincere as Silas Wright," is deemed tlie strongest 
affirmation that can be made in his favor. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 77 



Chapter XIX. 

LEGISLATIVE CAUCUS, NOMINATION FOR GOVERNOR AND 
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. 

On the 3d of April, 1824, a legislative caucus was held 
to nominate candidates for Governor and Lieutenant- 
Governor. Gov. Yates and Col. Samuel Young were 
the leading candidates. Mr. Wright took ground in 
favor of the renomination of Gov. Yates. He and 
Mr, Flagg insisted that if he had erred, it was through 
the advice of the party to which he belonged, and that 
he ought not to be sacrificed for acting with his i^arty. 
On the other hand. Col. Young was a favorite of the 
people's party, and they had concerted measures for his 
nomination, and for a new paper in Albany to support 
him. Caucuses were held on the subject, at which Messrs. 
Cramer, Wheaton and Monell attended. At one of these, 
it was finally resolved to call a State convention of dele- 
gates to nominate him. But this, though suspected, was 
not known at the time of this legislative caucus, and Col. 
Young was nominated by a small majority. The chagrin 
of Gov. Yates at his defeat was exceedingly great, and is 
supposed to have induced him to take the course he sub- 
sequently pursued during the residue of his official term. 

The legislative caucus of the people's party resulted 
in calling a State convention of delegates, on the 21st of 
September, at Utica, to make nominations for Governor 
and Lieutenant-Governor. 

Gov. Yates was induced to issue a jjroclamation on the 
second of June, convening the Legislature on the second 
of August, under this clause in the State Constitution, 
"The Governor shall have power to convene the Legisla- 



78 Life and Times of Silas Whight. 

t^^re on extraordinary occasions." He stated, in liis 
proclamation, that Congress had made no provision for 
clianging the mode of selecting the electors, and added 
that "the ^^eople were jnstly alarmed with the apprehen- 
sion that their undoubted right of choosing the electors 
of President and Vice-President would be withheld from 
them." It was charged, and believed at the time, that 
the Governor took this extraordinary step with the hope 
of securing a nomination from the people's convention, 
thereafter to be held. If this was so, he was doomed to 
a second disappointment on the subject of his nomination. 
He had no chance whatever in that convention. This 
calling the Legislature together, under the circumstances, 
lost him the conhdence of those who had, in the legisla- 
tive caucus, manfully sustained him. These things ended 
his official life. 

When the Legislature convened, on the second of 
August, they resolved that nothing had occurred since 
the previous adjournment authorizing the Governor to 
call an extra session, and adjourned to meet according 
to law. Mr. Wkight voted for these resolutions, upon 
the ground that, the Legislature having just considered 
and acted upon the only question presented by the 
Governor in his proclamation and message, that subject 
could not possibly, so soon thereafter, become an " extra- 
ordinary occasion," within the meaning of the Constitu- 
tion, so as to authorize convening the two Houses. This 
view was then and ever since has been deemed the 
true one. This proclamation, session and adjournment 
served only to increase the agitation, and inspire active 
partisans with increased zeal and greater activity. The 
war of words became intensely absorbing and excessively 
bitter. The charges of violated pledges and rights with- 
held from the people soon gave place to charges of bargain 
and corruption in the election of President by the House 
of Representatives, the accusations coming freely, and 



Life and Times of Silas Wrkuit. 79 

mainly from the other side ; the accused, in turn, becom- 
ing the accusers. 

At the convention of the people' s party, Mr. Tallmadge, 
who had expected the nomination for Governor, was 
defeated, and Mr. Clinton nominated by a very large 
majority. It is not remembered that Mr. Clinton openly 
avowed his preference for eithei- presidential candidate, 
although he was then really and soon afterwards was 
known as a supporter of Gen. Jackson. Col. Young, in 
a published letter, declared that Mr. Clay was his lirst 
choice, and, in substance, that he disa])proved of the 
course of those who were cliarged as hostile to a change 
of the electoral law ; which gave great offense to many, 
and to some who helped nominate him, and lost him the 
active support of many Crawford men. 

Mr. Clinton was elected by a majority of 16,906 votes. 
Mr. Wright supported Col. Young, in good faith, as the 
democratic candidate. He believed, however, that he 
had, by his letters and conversation concerning the elec- 
toral law and the candidates for the presidency, damaged 
his support, if he did not thereby occasion his own defeat. 
Mr. Wright, and many others, doubtless, felt the sting 
of Ids shrinking from the responsibility of the course of 
many who participated in liis nomination. They also 
thought that, having been nominated by a State legisla- 
tive caucus, he ought, in good ftiith, to have supported 
the candidate selected by a national legislative caucus, 
and that deserting it and declaring for Mr. Clay was an 
act of bad faith to the democratic party. Mr. Wright 
ever attributed these acts of Col. Young to his conforming 
to the advice of his friend, Mr. Cramer, instead of follow- 
ing the dictates of his own judgment, which was honest 
and usually very sound. 



80 Life and Times of Silas Wbight. 



Chapter XX. 

APPOINTING ELECTORS FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE- 
PRESIDENT. 

On the 2d of November, 1824, the Legislature convened, 
according to law, to choose presidential electors. In the 
Senate, the Clay and Adams tickets each received seven 
votes, and the Crawford ticket seventeen. In the House, 
the Clay ticket received thirty-two votes, the Crawford 
ticket forty-three, and tlie Adams ticket fifty. The Clay 
and Adams men agreed upon a compromise, and electors 
were nominated accordingly ; but upon joint ballot of 
the two Houses, owing to blank votes, only thirty-two of 
them were elected. Upon a second ballot, four Crawford 
men were chosen. It was alleged that these four were 
elected by the aid of Adams men. Their election caused 
Mr. Crawford to be one of the three highest from whom 
the House of Representatives had to choose, and pre- 
vented Mr. Clay being one of the three. It was then well 
understood that the election would go into the House, 
where Mr. Clay presided as Speaker, and was deemed 
all-powerful. Hence the belief that the Adams men, by 
design, deprived Mr. Clay of the means of becoming a 
competitor in the House. No other explanation has been 
given. 

Mr. Weight voted for the Crawford electors. Aside 
from considering himself bound by his nomination by 
tiie congressional caucus, the course of events subse- 
quently to his entering the Senate had induced him to 
distrust all the other candidates, except Gren. Jackson, 
who had no oi'ganized party in the State, or show of 
strength in the Legislature,— Mr. Wheeler, of the Assem- 



Life and Times of Silas Winuirr. 81 

bly, being his only avowed supporter in it. When the 
electors cast their votes for President, Mr. Pierre A. Bar- 
ker, who was chosen as an Adams man, cast his for the 
General. Twenty-six votes were cast for Mr. Adams and 
four for Mr. Clay. For Vice-President, Mr. Calhoun 
received twenty-nine, and Nathan Sanford seven. Thus 
ended the great contest in New York. 

6 . 



82 ^li^^ ^ND Times of Silas Wright, 



Chapter XXI. 

CHANGING THE ELECTORAL LAW. 

At tlie November session of the Legislature a law was 
passed concerning clioosing electors, submitting to the 
people the question as to how the choice should be made. 
It provided for ballot-boxes at the next general election, 
in which the voter might deposit a ballot upon which the 
mode of his choice should be inscribed. It miglit be for 
chosing "by districts," "general ticket and plurality," 
or "general ticket and majority." 

Without waiting for the advice of the people, on the 
IStli of March, 1825, the new Legislature passed an act 
for electing, by " districts," as many electors as the State 
might be entitled to members in the House of Represen- 
tatives, and these, when assembled to vote for President 
and Vice-President, to choose two electors to correspond 
witli the two Senators to which the State was entitled, 
and to fill any vacancies which might then exist. This 
act was not supported by Mr. Weight. Under this law 
the people elected, in 1828, thirty-four Presidential 
electors, eighteen in favor of Gen. Jackson, and six- 
teen for Mr. Adams. Thus, the people of the whole 
State gave but two effective votes. The eighteen Jackson 
electors chose two to represent the senatorial vote, so that 
the vote of the State was twenty for Gen. Jackson and 
sixteen for Mr. Adams. In effect, N^ew York was 
dwarfed down to the size of Rhode Island, and less than 
New Jersey. Results like this had been anticipated by 
Mr. Weight, and urged as a reason why the district 
system should not be adopted. The people of the State 
thereupon took the same view. They felt humiliated to 



Life and Times of Silas Wrkiut. S^i 

see the power of the State thus thrown away and her 
importance in a presidential election reduced to substan- 
tially nothing. Those who had felt proud of New York 
and gloried in her power and influence in national elec- 
tions, at once abandoned the district system, and came 
out in favor of a general ticket and plurality. On the 
IStli of April, 1829, the Legislature passed a law repeal- 
ing the district system, and adopting that of a general 
ticket for the whole State, a plurality making a choice, 
which law still exists. Although still preferring the 
nuijority system, Mr. Weight, not then in the Senate, 
yielded his private opinion and concurred with his friends 
and the public generally, in this action of the Legislature. 

Mr. Weight to Minet Jenison. 

"Weybridge, Vt., Bee. 9, 1824. 

" My Dear Sir. — Tlie traveling is so bad and the time to tlic 
annual session so short, that I have given up the expectation of 
returning home this vacation The following is a copy of the 
receipt I have from Mrs. Smith Willard : 

"'Received, Albany November 27, 1824, of S. Wright, Jr., 
fifty-six dollars fifty cents, to be applied on the account of Joseph 
Ames, and Ames, Walker & Adams. 

"(Signed) 'SMITH WILLARD.' 

" This was the sum I found on my memorandum, to be paid on 
the loth of December. We adjourned. Soon after I received my 
pay, and immediately });iid the money. It was more than enough 
to balance the account of Ames, individually, and the residue 
was applied on the account of the old firm of Ames, Walker & 
Adams. Mr. Ames will therefore pay to Mr. Hasbrouck, on my 
land contract, $56.50, as of the 2'7th November, and we shall be 
even. The first payment on the contract falls due on the first 
January next, and I wish this payment made by that time. I have 
nothing new to write. Our calculations as to the election were 
not more disappointed than those of wiser men and more inte- 
rested politicians. The State has taken a kind of political somer- 



84 Lit'E AND Times of Silas W hi get. 

set, which I think will be tiiiowii buck next year. I have nothing 
new to write, but what the newspapers of the clay have taken to 
you. Our last session has Ixen interspersed with stoims and sun- 
shine like the others. I send you a copy of our electoral [law], 
together with the report of the committee on that subject, of 
which I had the honor to be a member. 

" In confidence I inform you that my friend Earll, the Onondaga 
Chief, laid the plan and drew the report, etc. The opposition 
curse the plan and call it ours ; say we had better belong to 
another seve}iteen, etc., etc. We think the plan rather cunning, 
as it is sound in principle, ^J)eq/>Z«^6V< in its character, and furnishes 
a safe retreat for the seventeen. All our friends must take at once 
the district ground, as that is the democratic ground beyond all 
question. You will think this is contrary to my ground of last 
winter. It is, lint it is more democratic, and the keeping of the 
vote of the States together anyway, when dishonest men try to 
divide it, is impracticable. On the district ground we shall, at 
the ballot-boxes, Avhip the Clintonians, as they will take the 
general ticket plurality g^voxxnd. I send you a copy of the Chemi- 
cal Bardv evidence. The report of the committee, you have in 
I'he Argus. Read them together, and let them circulate. They 
will go to prove the characters of some men what I have declared 
them to be. After this document has been read by our friends 
in Canton, I wish you to send it to Allen for his reading, but get 
it back and keep it safe. Give my resj^ects to all, particularly to 
Messrs. Sackrider &, Barnes, and tell them to read this treatise 
on chemistry. Stoors will also read it, I think. 

" In haste, your friend, 

"S. WRIGHT, Jr. 
"Mr. MiNET Jenison." 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 85 



Chapter XXII. 

SUCCESSOR OF IIUFUS KING. 

The term of Rufiis King, wliose long and successful 
public service is so well known, was to expire on the 3d of 
March, 1825. His great age and enfeebled health induced 
him to decline a re-election. The first day of February 
was the time fixed by law for the appointment of a suc- 
cessor. The people' s party and Clintonians had elected a 
large majority to the Assembly. Ambrose Spencer, a 
distinguished jurist, was their first choice to succeed Mr. 
King, and tliey accordingly nominated liini. In the 
Senate the Lieutenant-Governor, who was the presiding 
officer, and Senators Ogden, Burrows, Gardiner and 
others, as well as the friends of Mr. Crawford, were 
oj)posed to his election. Ten Senators nominated Mr. 
Spencer. James Tallmadge, Edward P. Livingston, Vic- 
tory Birdseye, Samuel Young and John W. Taylor, 
received two nominations each ; Mr. Wright nominating 
Victory Birdseye. Eleven other Senators nominated each 
a sej)arate candidate. No one had a majority, A reso- 
lution was then offered declaring Mr. Spencer duly nomi- 
nated, but failed, eleven to twenty. Similar resolutions, 
declaring James Tallmadge and Col. Young respectively 
nominated, were ofl'ered, but laid on the table. One 
nominating John W. Taylor was lost, nine to twenty-two. 
The Senate then adjourned. 

As no one had a majority, the two Houses could not 
meet and compare nominations, and, if they did not agree, 
elect by joint ballot. The election failed, as the voting 
could not be again commenced on another day without a 
change of the law. 



85 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Although it was conceded that the Senate was legally 
authorized to scatter its vote so as not to make a nomina- 
tion, the twenty-one Senators who did not so act as to 
concentrate their nomination, to the end that the two 
Houses could meet and act by joint ballot, were severely 
censured by the Clintonians and people's party gener- 
ally. Mr. Jenkins, in his biography of Mr. Weight, 
gives the probable causes of Mr, Spencer's defeat as 
follows : 

" The Crawford men opposed him because he was friendly to 
Mr. Adams. The adherents of CTen. Tallmadge imagined that 
he could be appointed by a joint resohition, in case no election 
was made in the customary manner ; a portion of the Adams 
men would not concur in any tiling approved by Gov. Clin- 
ton; and another portion, headed by Thurlow Weed, of Monroe 
county, also rejoiced at his defeat, because they hoped it might 
lead to the selection of Albert H. Tracy, of Buffalo. Resolutions 
were subsequently passed in the Senate, with the vote of Mr. 
Weight, nominating Gen. Tallmadge and Mr. Tracy. The 
House refused to concur, on the ground that that mode of 
appointment was unknown to the laws of the State ; l)ut it is not 
unlikely that their legal scruples would never been heard of, had 
the name of Judge Spencer been inserted in one of the resolu- 
tions. 

'At the time, Mr. Wkight and his friends insisted that the 
majority of the people were opposed to the appointment of Judge 
Spencer. The result of the fall election showed that this was the 
case; and it is some little gratification to know that the electors 
of the State ratified, in the end, the conduct of their Senators in 
1825." 

Notwithstanding his great learning and superior ability 
as a Jurist, Judge Spencer, it is alleged, was never person- 
ally popular. He was considered a severe politician, 
somewhat ar^^-ogant and overbearing in his manners, and 
resentful and vindictive in his dislikes. He had been a 
rigid democrat, but had left his old friends and joined 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 87 

theii' adversaries, and manifested the usual zeal of new 
converts. In the convention for revising the Constitu- 
tion, he sought to retain the old Council of Revision and 
Appointment, composed of the judges of the Supreme 
Court, where he presided, and of the Chancellor, and 
had there fought for the retention of the old odious pro- 
perty qualification, to entitle a citizen to vote for Gover- 
nor and Senators. Throughout that convention he had 
acted with Kent, Van Yechten, and other leaders of the 
federal party. At that time New York was really demo- 
cratic at the core, as the next general election fully 
demonstrated. Under these circumstances, it is not 
strange that Mr. Wright and those who acted with him 
assumed, and acted upon the assumption, that the j)eople 
did not wish Mr. Spencer to be made United States Sena- 
tor, which would enable him to control j)olitical affairs in 
the State, especially in national matters, and to gratify his 
resentments and disposition to rule in things both per- 
sonal and political. They believed that tlie majority 
of the people would approve their resorting to all lawful 
means, as legislative bodies daily do to stave off ques- 
tions and kill bills, to defeat a candidate against whom 
so many objections were raised and sustained by proof. 
The fall elections of that year showed that he had rightly 
anticipated the wishes of the people. After the people 
spoke, Mr. Spencer was not heard of. In the next Legis- 
lature — the political character of the Assembly having 
been changed — the accomplished Nathan Sairford, tlien 
Chancellor, was almost unanimously elected to the 
United States Senate, to supply the vacancy occasioned 
by the expiration of the term of the venerable and 
patriotic Rufus King, whom Mr. Adams soon after sent 
to England as minister. Mr. Wright voted for Mr. 
Sanford, 



88 Ltfe and Times of Silas Wright. 

Mr. Wright to Minet Jenison. 

"Albany, M March, 1825. 

" My Dear Sir. — You will not be surprised when I tell you 
that your letter did not reach me until I had spoken hard things 
against you for your silence. The liberality with which you 
account, in this letter, induces me to fear that you must have 
troubled your own friends to have made out the money. As to 
politics, I am not surprised at your account. I was much disap- 
pointed in the result of the election, as well in the State as in 
our county, but, after learning the result, I expected to hear that 
our friends at Canton were as hidden and in silence. As to 
them, I will now say to you this State, and nearly this Union, is 
in a perfect state of chaos. Adams is President, and, although I 
was rather pleased than otherwise with the result, there is much 
reason to believe that his administration will be anything hut 
republican. He seems determined to unite all interests in his 
(jabinet, seeming to think that he shall thus unite all j^arties in 
his favor. But Mr. Adams ought to be old enough to know that 
it is easier to desexwe a man's friendship tlian to buy it, and that 
it is not always the most prudent general who enlists the soldiers 
of an enemy rather than fight them. It is true, in the organiza- 
tion of a new cabinet, Mr. Adams must have united some one of 
the different interests with his. This might have been easily 
done, but all can never be united, and, by putting all into the 
cabinet, he will keep them all alive, and, however they may differ 
among themselves, they will all ascree in this one thing of putting 
him out of the way at the end of four years. I am soi-i-y to say 
that the prospect now is, that he will select very weak individuals 
from the several parties. All things here, and all jiarties I may say 
here too, are waiting to determine whether they are to support 
or oppose the national administration. Mr. Clinton, you will 
have seen, has been offered the appointment of minister to 
London. It is now said he will refuse the appointment and 
declare war against Adams ; but that is uncertain yet. That Mr. 
Adams should have taken this man to his bosom and confidence, 
was, to me, the unkindest cut of all. I confess to you I am 
heartily sick of politics, but have not yet entii'ely concluded to 



Life and Tines of Silas Wright. 89 

relinquish the little notion I formerly had of lieing an honest 
man. I therefore intend to do my duty, to the best of my ability, 
while I remain in my present high station, without much refer- 
ence, as I now feel, to future popularity, but with the utmost 
care, at all times, to defeat and thwart the intentions of the 
political jugglers that are so plenty in this State. In doing this 
I shall necessarily incur tlie ill-will or abuse of the same kind of 
men at liome. But be it so. If I can gratify no other passion, 
I can and will gratify my indignation on these political pharisees. 
And I will engage that, while I hold the purse-strings, these fel- 
lows get few fat offices with my consent. 

" Where is my friend Allen ? I fear that the result of the elec- 
tion has blown him off the coast. I have not heard a word from 
him since I left St. Lawrence. Our friend, V. D. H.,* gets along 
but badly, as far as I can leai-ii, with his canal, and you know, 
since the use they made of it at the last election, I must feci dis- 
posed to help him along as fast as possible, lie has been in New 
York most of the time of the session, but I believe he kee])s one 
printing press constantly going here, for his productions, at h/'s 
oion expense. Write often and I will answer as usual. 

" Sincerely yours, 

"S. WRIGHT, Ju. 
"Mr. MiNBT Jenison." 

Mr. Wright to Parley Keyes, one of the Celebrated 

Seventeen Senators. 

" Canton, 29th JVov., 1825. 

"My Dear Stu. — I write for tlu' purpose of in([uiring of you 
whether Ambrose Spencer is a Senator from this State, in the 
Congress of the United States. If you are able to answer the 
question, I wish you would communicate the information to the 
Hon. John C. Spencer, of Ontario county, in this State, who pro- 
bably has some anxiety to know. I have looked in my next 
year's almanac, and cannot find his name among the list. It 

* Jacob A. Van Den Heuvel, in the Assembly from St. Lawrence, elected 
with tlie expectation that lie would secure the construction of a canal from 
Ogdoiisburgh to Lake Champlaiii. 



90 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Spencer is 7iot senator, what are the prospects of the Buchtail 
candidate., General T. ? Again ; if four adjoining counties have 
this year elected all Bucktail members to the Assembly, and they 
form our congressional district, will they elect federal congress- 
man next year ? But, seriously, my friend, were ever men so 
badly whipped as the allies in this State, this year ; and was ever 
an event so fortunate ? The blood of the martyrs may now be 
truly said to be the seed of the Church., and the Magnus must 

wish the d 1 had tlie memories of his darling people. I know 

what the feelings of yourself and our Lewis friends are, as to our 
member elect,* and you know what my fears are. But suffice it 
to say that he was the only man we could have elected, and 
still an election so nearly upon old party grounds has not been 
known here for ten years. Tlie rest of our ticket was undoubted, 
and we elect the whole, except our poor friend Hitchcock, who is 

lost by the d d treachery of Raymond, our late high-minded 

sheriff. He nominated himself for clerk, and made too strong a 
diversion from Hitchcock. 

" Our friend Danvers, too, in Washington county, is lost, and is 
now candidate for clerk of the Assembly, with Young, etc., to 
support him. He wishes me to write you on the subject, and 
request you, if consistent, to give him a lift. That he is perfectly 
competent, you will not doubt ; that he is a true and stern demo- 
crat, we know ; and I have heard of no candidate I Avould feel 
so strongly interested for. He says he will not conflict with Liv- 
ingston, if he is a candidate, but he thinks he will not be. If 
you have no other candidate you prefer, I hope you will extend 
your favor to him. Please let me hear from you, and say when 
you will be at Denmark, on your way down, and I will meet you 
there. I now intend to be there on the twenty-third or twenty- 
fourth. Do not fail to let me know. 

" Truly, your obedient servant, 

"SILAS WRIGHT, Jk. 
"Hon. Parley Keyes." 

* Baron S. Doty, formerly from Lewis county. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 91 



CHAPTER XXIIL 

AMENDING THE STATE CONSTITUTION. 

By the Constitution of 1821, the right of suffrage was 
limited to those who paid taxes, performed duty in the 
militia, or served in fire companies. Justices of the peace 
were appointed by the judges of the county courts and 
boards of supervisors. These provisions were the subject 
of loud and extensive complaint. The Legislature of 
1825 proposed amendments to the Constitution on these 
subjects, which were agreed to by two thirds of that of 
1826, and ratified at the N ovember election. Under these, 
citizenship and residence, except as to colored people, 
who were required to own real estate to the amount of 
$250, were the only conditions of voting. Justices of the 
peace were made elective, like other town officers. These 
changes received the support of Mr. Wright, on the 
ground that they were salutary improvements, and much 
preferable and more democratic than the old provisions. 



1)2 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter XXIV. 

STATE BANK CHARTERS. 

The powers of aggregated capital, in the form of banks, 
with tlie privilege of issuing a paper currency, was felt 
in New York at an early day. As places of discount 
and deposit, banks are of great convenience to those 
engaged in trade and commerce, by enabling them to 
anticipate the payment of good business paper. The 
holder sells, the bank buys, and, if the maker is good 
and performs his duty, the transaction is substantially 
ended when it is begun. Making paper to sell is simply 
a means of borrowing, and is essentially different from 
anticipating existing means. New York bank charters 
not only authorized loaning the capital paid in, but lend- 
ing their credit, in the form of bills, to once and a lialf 
that sum. A bank having $100,000 capital could loan, 
including its own bills, $250,000. This capacity of self- 
expansion made bank stock a favorite investment. 
Hence, the Legislature was annually besieged by appli- 
cants for new charters. Had banking been left free, like 
other business, the inducements to enter into it would 
have been limited and controlled by competition. But, 
in 1804, when there were but six banks in the State — three 
in New York, one in Albany, one in Hudson and one at 
Waterf ord, or near there — the power of combined capital 
was concentrated upon the Legislature, which passed the 
"restraining act," which gave the incorporated banks a 
monopoly of discounting notes. It made it a penal 
offense to contribute capital to any company or associa- 
tion to be used in making discounts, or transacting any 
other business wliich banks usually transact, or to receive 



Life a.\d Times of Silas Wrkiiit. 9^3 

moiie}' on deposit, and declared all notes and secnrities 
received in sucli business to be void. Tins impolitic and 
anti-democratic law, Mr. \i\i\ Baren, when in the State 
Senate, in 1814, sought to repeal. This act gave the 
banks a monopoly of tlie business in which they were 
engaged, and by concentrating their strength in its favor 
they were enabled to prevent its repeal until the adopti(jn 
of t'he free banking system in 1887. It was this law 
which caused bank charters to be sought by every means 
at the hands of the Legislature. The broader the powers 
conferred the more valuable the charter. Skillful and 
unscrupulous men were often thrown into the Legisla- 
ture to promote schemes for securing bank charters. As 
a member of Assembl}^ fiom the city of New York, 
Aaron Burr had carried through it the Manhattan Baidv, 
so disguised as to be unknown, in a l^ill for " supplying 
the city of New York with pure and wholesome water." 
Dilax)idated politicians sold their services and professed 
influence as lobbyists, for which they were often liberally 
rewarded when their labors proved successful. AVliile 
the restraining law existed, the stock of banks newly 
chartered would be above par, and could be sold at a 
large profit. These stocks were distributed by commis- 
sioners named in the charters, thus enabling them to 
become the mediums of rewarding, through advantageous 
sales, those who were promised rewards for votes and 
influence. These distributions were usually so made as 
not to disclose the real beneficiary. On some occasions 
the applicants for charters raised funds for distribution 
among members and lobby agents, but to be reimbursed 
from the advance of stocks controled by the managers. 
Offices in and the management of a new bank were among 
the means of rewarding those who had lent valuable 
assistance in obtaining charters. Securing such charters 
became a means of corrupting the Legislature, and of 
rewarding those who were the paid agents of corruption. 



94 Life and Times of Silas Wrioht. 

Applicants for bank charters commenced swarming 
around the Legislature as early as 18-28-24. The pressure 
became intense in 1825, when there were some forty 
applications for new bank charters. The appetite for 
bank charters increased by being fed. Mr. Wright 
never voted for a bank charter. He was looked upon 
as the leader of those opposed to increasing their num- 
ber. Great efforts were made to induce him to yield 
his opposition, but all to no effect. The gratification 
of ambition, cupidity and vanity were held out without 
success, but tending to increase his unyielding opposi- 
tion. A distinguished constituent of his, who had been 
in Congress, and then held a high federal office, was 
selected to approach him. The answer which he received 
was a combination of reason, scorn and contempt, which 
withered him, and forever closed his mouth on the sub- 
ject. His contingent fee for securing an important vote 
was more than lost, Mr. Wright was not communica- 
tive on the subject. The occupant of an adjoining room 
described it as one of the most remarkable scenes 
which ever occurred. Mr. Wright not only denmmced 
the indignity and insult of gray hairs seeking to corrupt 
and destroy one, of half the tempter's years — to disgrace 
his professions of democracy and bring odium upon the 
democratic party, and administered a keen rebuke to 
the crawding miscreant who had sold himself, and who 
professed to make merchandise of the votes of others, 
and all with a stinging contempt without a parallel. 
The intruder quailed under the eye of insulted integrity 
and independence, and sought forgetfulness where wa-ong- 
doers never find it — in the wine-cup. 

Mr. Hammond says : "Mr. Wright took a firm stand 
against the extension of exclusive privileges, and main- 
tained it resolutely, manger the blandishments of politi- 
cal friends and the threats of opponents. During that 
session, sixteen bank charters passed the Assembly, and 



LlfE AND TlUKS OF Si LAS WliiatlT. 95 

fourteen were originally introduced into tlie Senate, 
which passed to a third reading. The greater part of 
these failed of obtaining a constitutional vote in the 
Senate ; and we have no doubt that that failure was, 
in most cases, produced by the personal efforts and 
influence of Mr. Wright." 

The Legislature had been in session but a few days 
before more than forty applications for new banks were 
presented and pressed by applicants, and sagacious and 
skillful agents. The pressure upon Mr. Wright was 
very great. Its effect upon liim is shown in the following- 
anecdote related by Mr. Hammond. 

"To show with what painful anxiety this combination of bank 
applicants bore upon the mind of Mr. Weight, we l^eg leave to 
relate an anecdote communicated to the author by a gentleman 
who lodged in the same room with Mr. Wkigiit, during the 
winter of 1825. Mr. Wright was occasionally subject to restless 
nights, or rather his sleep was sometimes unquiet. One night, 
which succeeded a day when some of the bank bills had been 
discussed in the Senate, after Mr. WiinaiT had been asleep some 
time, hefeprung from liis bed to the floor, being still asleep, and 
exclaimed, Avith a loud voice, 'My God! the combination is too 
strong, — every bank will pass.' When he awoke, it was with 
great difficulty that his nervous system could be so far quieted 
as to enable him to obtain any more rest that night." 

Nothing could show more conclusivel}^ how deeply he 
felt the force of the principles which were involved and 
he was seeking to defend. There are few upon whom 
the subject of their official duties makes so deep an 
impression. 

The case of Jasper Ward, a Senator from the first dis- 
trict, became the subject of great interest. He was 
accused of corrupt conduct, as a Senator, in the passage 
of an amendment to the Chatham insurance act, and an 
act incorporating the ^Etna Insurance Company, thus 
conferring special legislative favors like bank charters. 



96 Life and Times op Silas Weight. 

On the first day of the session of 1825, Mr. Ward 
informed the Senate tliat he had been accused of improper 
conduct in relation to these acts, and demanded, at the 
hands of the Senate, an investigation in relation to the 
charges. His communication was referred to a select 
committee consisting of Messrs Weight, Spencer, Bur- 
rows, McCall and Haight. 

Four days afterwards Mr. WriCtHT offered the follow- 
ing resolution, which was adopted : 

" Resoloed, That the committee to whom was referred the 
comraunication of Jasper Ward, made to the Senate on the third 
instant, he instructed to inquire into the truth of the charges 
contained in the New York American and New York Evening 
Post, sometime during the month of July or August last, in rehi- 
tion to the conduct of Jasper Ward in eifecting the passage of 
an amendment to the act incorporating the Chatham Fire Insur- 
ance Company, and the passage of the act incorporating the 
^Etiui Fire Company, and into otlier improper conduct in the 
passage of either of said bills, in which the said Jasper Ward 
shall appear to liave been directly or indirectly concerned." 

The investigation of the committee was laborious and 
thorough. The testimony was all taken down minutely 
by Mr. Wiik^ht, with his own hand, and the report was 
drawn by him. The depositions and report occupy 
seventy large folio pages in the Senate Journal. The 
report states that several of the charges made were wholly 
unsustained by proof. But the evidence authorized Mr. 
Wright, as chairman of the committee, on the 28th of 
February, to offer the following resolution : 

" Resolved, That the conduct of Jasper Ward, a Senator from 
the first district, and the means used by him in obtaining the 
passage through the Legislature of the act entitled 'An act to 
amend the Chatham Fire Insurance Company,' and also his con- 
duct and the means used by him in obtaining the passage of ' An 
act to incorporate the vEtna Fire Insurance Company of New 
York,' were a violation of his duties as a Senator, affording a 



Life and Times uf tSiLAS Wright. 97 

pernicious and dangerous example, tending to corrupt the public 
morals, and to impair the public confidence in the integrity of 
the Legislature, and that his conduct in these respects deserves 
and should receive severe reprehension ; therefore, 

'■'■ liesolved, That said Jasper Ward, Senator as afoi-esaid, be, 
and he hereby is, expelled the Senate." 

The Senate laid this resolution npon the table, and 
ordered that Mr. Ward should be heard, on a certain 
day, by counsel. On the next day the presiding officer 
of the Senate received the following communication from 
him : 

"SiK. — Unwilling to retard the business of the honorable the 
Senate by anything that concerns me individually, I have, upon 
mature reflection, concluded to waive the indulgence granted me 
to appear before the Senate by counsel. I do this from the con- 
viction that the honorable body over which you preside is fully 
competent to decide on the merits of my case, as justice may 
require, without the agency of counsel. At the same time, per- 
mit me to request you to inform the Senate that I hereby resign 
my seat as a member of their body. 

"I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

"JASPER WARD." 

Here the action of the Senate ended. Mr. AVard had 
anticipated its probable action, and expelled himself 
without a hearing. 

Mr. Spencer had first moved in the matter, and he and 
his friends complained of Mr, Wright being made chair- 
man over him. It was insinuated that Mr. Ward was to 
be screened and protected through the agency of Mr. 
Wright and his political friends on the committee. But 
the industrious, able and fair manner in which he per- 
formed his duties silenced all complaint, and Mr. Spencer 
ever after honored and respected Mr. Wright, as did 
other careful observers. This course proved that where 

7 



98 Life and Times of jSilas Wright. 

duties were to be performed, personal and political feel- 
ings must yield. Mr. Ward had won the esteem of his 
brethren in the Senate ; but it is due to Mr. Wright to 
say that he had noticed in him a careless and half reck- 
less manner of doing and saying things that were dis- 
tasteful to him, which somewhat diminished the pain 
that he must otherwise have felt during these proceed- 
ings. Mr. Ward was not probably a bad man at heart, 
but the course of events about the Legislature, in relation 
to bank and corporation charters, had familiarized the 
minds of men to practices which no one could defend. In 
the beginning the practiced wrongs were small and not 
alarming. They grew, day by day, until the public 
became amazed and demanded the punishment of all 
such offenders. Obtaining bank charters, to make 
profits by the advance of their stocks, continued, to a 
large extent, until the free banking law of 1837 rendered 
all such enterprises hopeless. 

Mr. Wright was never the owner of bank stock, or 
otherwise interested in banks. He admitted their con- 
veniences, while he regretted their defects and tlieu- 
inability to aid the public when assistance was most 
needed. Instead of dealing in real money, they exchanged 
credits with their customers, exacting interest upon their 
own. Under such circumstances, when panics and finan- 
cial storms came, they struggled to protect their own 
credit, outstanding in the form of bills. Instead of 
increasing the volume of the currency, they actually 
diminished it. They lent freely when money was j)lenty, 
and collected it in from their customers when it is 
scarce. Banks of issue expanded and contracted the 
circulating medium at the wrong times. No such objec- 
tions exist to banks of discount and deposit, dealing 
in constitutional currency. To such banks Mr. Weight 
did not object. 

This opposition to granting special legislative favors, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 99 

through bank charters, and his admiration of "Benton 
mint drops" and opposition to the United States Bank, 
induced the very general belief that he was a ' ' hard 
money" man, and opposed to all banks. This belief 
sprang up soon after he entered the State Senate, and 
expanded while he remained there. As a whole, the 
banks were unfriendly to him. They were at the bottom, 
and caused a portion of the difficulties which disrupted 
the democratic party in the State, and which led to the 
formation of combinations with other interests, which 
pursued liim to his grave. An account of these will be 
given in another place. 



100 LiF£} AND TuiE^ (JF Silas Wright. 



Chapter XXV. 

THE NEW YORK CANALS. 

The New York canals were commenced in 1816. The 
Erie and Champlain were completed near the time Mr. 
Wright entered the State Senate. They occasioned 
wonderful clianges in the value of real estate throughout 
their length, and esi)ecially in certain prominent locali- 
ties. This, and their usefulness, aroused an unregulated 
spirit of speculation, resulting in applications for canals 
in almost every corner of the State. There was a perfect 
mania for canals. The State, by constructing them, was 
expected to make everybody residing near them rich. 
The applicants often controlled local elections. St. Law- 
rence county, by an immense majority in the fall of 1824, 
elected Jacob A. Vanden Heuvel to the Assembly, under 
the expectation that he would cause the construction of 
a canal from Ogdensburgh to Plattsburgh or Lake Cham- 
plain. But owing to the refusal of the water to run up 
hill, over the Cliateaugay mountains, and his want of 
success in procuring land of the British Government in 
Canada, so as to avoid them, the work was never com- 
menced or authorized. 

In his annual message to the Legislature, in 1825, Gov. 
Clinton discussed, at great length, the subject of canals, 
and their great advantages. He especially enumerated 
a large number of localities where canals might be con- 
structed, and called the attention of the Legislature to 
them. At that session, the Legislature responded to his 
views by making provision for surveying seventeen of 
the routes recommended by him. These things flattered 
the hopes and excited and increased the efforts of those 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 101 

residing near tliese localities, or who owned lands in the 
neighborhood of them. Thousands of men conhdently 
expected to be made rich by the legislation of the State 
in constructing canals. 

Mr. Wkight was made chairman of the committee on 
canals. To secure his favorable action seemed all-import- 
ant, and pressure of every possible variety and form was 
brought to bear upon him. Flattery and hopes of pre- 
ferment, — of becoming a second Clinton and guiding the 
affairs of the State, were largely resorted to. Threats of 
political destruction often played a part in the efforts to 
control the young Senator. Personal considerations 
produced no effect upon him. He reflected with a full 
conscientiousness of the momentous importance of the 
subject, and formed opinions for life which have success- 
fully stood the scrutiny of time. Instead of temporizing, 
he souglit occasion to present his conclusions to the 
Senate, and through it to the people of the State. , 
The application of David E. Evans and others for tlie 
construction, by the State, of a branch from the Erie 
canal, by way of Tonawanda, to Olean, on the Alleghany 
river, presented one. Their petition was referred to the 
committee on canals, consisting of two besides the chair- 
man. Cadwallader D. Golden, from the first district, a 
distinguished lawyer in the city of New York, a gentle- 
man of talents, high character and standing, a warm and 
efficient Clintonian, and an ardent internal improvement 
man, was second on the committee. He was a "speedy 
impulse" man, ))ut a fair-minded, candid and prudent 
one. The third was Jacob Haight, from t\m tliird 
district, a person of intelligence and high personal char- 
acter, who belonged to and acted with the people's party. 
The hearing before this committee was long, patient and 
fair. 

On this application, the committee, through Mr. 
Wright, made a long and able report, which remains a 



102 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

monument of his labor, candor, fairness and financial 
wisdom. Tlie Erie and Cliamplain canals had been com- 
pleted. The canal debt was large, but, by applying the 
proceeds of the canal fund and canal tolls to its pay- 
ment, it was rapidly decreasing, thus authorizing the 
expectation that it would be fully extinguished within 
a few years. The question presented was that between 
the debt-paying and debt-contracting systems. If this 
petition was granted many others must follow, and the 
public debt be largely increased. If denied, the canal 
debt would soon be canceled, and the Legislature would 
then be, under the Constitution, authorized to apply the 
proceeds of the canals to making such internal improve- 
ments as the best interests of the State required, without 
becoming burdened with debt. Its solution involved the 
principles upon which such improvements should be 
made. 

These principles were fully and clearly stated in the 
report, to which Mr. Wright adhered through life. 
They were approved by the leading men of the State, 
and were fully indorsed by the majority of the electors 
at the time. They led to his appointment, in 1829, to 
the office of Comptroller, to the anti-debt policy of the 
act of 1842, the financial provisions of the Constitution 
of 1846, and the amendments of 1867. These principles 
are thus stated in the report : 

" The great principles, tlien, which the committee suppose must 
be determined by the Legishiture, before they Avill authorize the 
construction of any new canals at the expense of the State, are: 

" First. The practicability of making a canal upon the route 
proposed, and of obtaining a supply of water sufficient for its use. 

" Second. Tlie ability of the State to sustain the expense, or the 
resources from which the work is to be carried on. 

" Tldrd. The importance of the work, and the promise of the 
utility and consequent income to reimburse the treasury for the 
expense of making it. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 103 

"And, unless the committee can make an affirmative and cer- 
tain application of these principles to the project of the peti- 
tioners, they do not consider themselves at liberty to ask the 
Senate to adopt it," 

The report takes strong grounds against resorting to 
the credit of the State for the purpose of making further 
improvements. It says : "That the State has borrowed 
money for the construction of canals is true, and that it 
can again do it tlie committee do not doubt. But that it 
has paid the money so borrowed is not true ; that tlie 
most hazardous part of this experiment, the pa^anent of 
the debt due for this splendid improvement, has yet been 
tested is not true." 

The canal debt was then $7,884,770.99 ; on the 30th 
September, 1869, it was $12,564,780, having been increased 
$5,680,009.01, or almost doubled in amount. The whole 
State debt is now (1871) $43,265, c 06. 40. 

Had Mr. Wiught's policy been pursued, our canal debt 
would, many years since, have been paid, the Erie canal 
enlarged, and other public works been constructed, and 
the State without a debt occasioned thereby. This rejjort 
defeated the anticipations of those who had built high 
hopes based on expected legislation. The principles 
upon which it was based became an element in the poli- 
tics of the State. The democrats, almost unanimously, 
adopted them ; those who did not, became parties to the 
combinations which occasioned his defeat in 1846, when 
a candidate for re-election as Governor. Forty-four years 
have rolled by, and many non -paying canals have been 
constructed by the State, and the canal debt immensely 
enlarged, and the State staggering under an enormous 
indebtedness, all tending to demonstrate the wisdom of 
the policy marked out in this report by Mr. Wkigiit. 



104 Life and Times ot Silas Wbtght. 



Chapter XXVI. 

LEGISLATIVE CAUCUS ADDRESS. 

From the organization of tlie federal government to 
1824, presidential candidates had been, with one or two 
early exceptions, nominated by a caucus of members of 
Congress, at the session next previous to tlie elections. 
Candidates for Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and other 
officers, voted for throughout the whole State, had been 
selected by State legislative caucuses in the same way, 
each party acting by itself. The want of harmonious 
action when Mr. Crawford was nominated in 1824, and 
the unfavorable result when Col. Young was presented 
by a legislative caucus in the State of Nev/ York, led to 
the abandonment of nominatmg caucuses for the action 
of the electors. The system of calling State conventions, 
to select candidates to be supj)orted, followed, as better 
calculated to collect and combine the wishes and inte- 
rests of the masses of a party. Under the caucus system, 
districts and counties represented by political adversa- 
ries had no voice in the selections made, and were com- 
pelled to yield to the representatives of other districts 
and counties. 

A caucus of the democratic members of the Legislature 
of New York, at its winter session in 1826, was called, 
when the best mode of nominating candidates to be sup- 
ported for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor was among 
the subjects of consideration. It appointed a commit- 
tee to prepare and report resolutions and an address. 
Mr. Wright was a member of this committee, and 
prepared those which were reported at an adjourned 
meeting, which were unanimously adopted. These are 



LiBE AND Times of Silas Wright. 105 

so important, and the reasons so strong and conclusive in 
favor of clianging from the caucus to the convention sys- 
tem, which exercised so wide an influence and were so 
satisfactory to all his political friends, that we gire the 
resolutions and address entire. The mode then recom- 
mended now prevails throughout the entii'e Union, by all 
political parties. 

Republican^ Legislative Meeting. 

" At a meeting of the republican members of the Legislature 
of the State of New York, held at the Senate Chamber of the 
Capitol, in the city of Albany, on the 13th day of April, 182G, 
Jacob Haight, Esq., Senator from the third district, in the chair, 
and Robert Monell, Esq., of the Assembly, from the county of 
Chenango, Secretary. 

The following resolutions and address were unanimously agreed 
to : 

" Resolved, That it be recommended to the republican electors 
of the several counties of this State to choose delegates, equal 
to the number of representatives in the Assembly to which they 
may be respectively entitled, to meet at the village of Herkimer, 
on the first Wednesday of October next, to nominate candidates 
to be supported for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor at the 
ensuing election. 

" Resolved, That it be recommended to the republican electors 
of the several towns in each county to choose delegates, to meet 
in county convention, to appoint their delegates to the State 
convention. 

" Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by 
the republican members of this Legislature, and publislied. 

"JACOB HAIGHT, Chairman. 

" Robert Monell, Secretary?'' 

'■'■To the RepuUican Electors of the State of Neto Yo7-k: 

" Fellow-Citizens. — The time has again arrived, when, accord- 
ing to the long-established usages of the republican party, your 
representatives in tlie Legislature would be called upon to dis- 



lOG Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

charge the responsible duty of nominating for your acceptance, and 
offering for your support, candidates for the offices of Governor 
and Lieutenant-Governor of the State. The number of years 
through which tlie practice of a legislative nomination of these 
distinguished officers has been adhered to by the republicau 
party, the success which for so large a portion of the time has 
attended that party under it, and the several distinguished officers 
who have, through the intervention of such a nomination, been 
from time to time elevated to the highest and most responsible 
stations in the government, are the best proofs that, in these 
nominations, the pul)lic Avill has been consulted, the public inte- 
rests regarded, and tlie great object of all nominations, tlie selec- 
tion of fit and suitable candidates for office, satisfactorily attained. 
" We are aware that the mode of nomination has been assailed; 
that it has been pronounced bad in principle and arbitrary in 
practice ; that management and intrigue have been said to govern 
its pi-oceedings, and the elevation of a favorite to mark its results; 
that its supporters liave been charged with a blind obedience to 
imperial dictation, and the actors in it with the most flagrant 
abuse of usurped power. These charges and allegations we have 
often heard. Tlic evidences of their truth we have not seen. 
On the contrary, we have seen the democracy of the State sup- 
porting, and successfully suppoi'ting, candidates for offices thus 
nominated. We have seen the government of the State satisfac- 
torily administered by officers thus nominated, thus supported 
and thus elected. We have seen the rights of the citizen pro- 
tected, his privileges extended, and the safety of his person ami 
property secured to him under the administration of such oflicers. 
We have seen the State defended from the attacks of her enemies 
without, and protected in the enjoyment of peace and tranquillity 
within, under such administrations. We have seen her rising to 
a proud pre-eminence among her sister States, and giving strength 
and confidence to the national government under such an admin- 
istration. Nay, we have seen the same individual, at one time 
elevated to the highest executive office in the State from such a 
nomination, and at another time from a nomination made in a 
diffi^rent manner. Nor have we been able to discover that the 
pride of power or the consequence of office were more sensibly 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 107 

felt or more boldly manifested, when the former mode of nomi- 
nation was the stepping-stone to the office, than when a different 
nomination effected the same object. Experience, then, has as 
yet exhibited no dangers to the State or the citizen, arising from 
this mode of proposing candidates for office. The agents in 
making these nominations are the representatives of the people, 
carrying with them the strongest evidence of public confidence, — 
a voluntary election by a majority of their immediate constituents. 
Principle, then, cannot be violated while tliese constituents ask 
of them the performance of this duty, or whilst their interest or 
the interests of the public can be subserved by a prompt dis- 
charge of it. Nothing, therefore, but the strongest reasons of 
policy and expediency can, at this time, excuse the republican 
members of the Legislature from following the course which has 
been so long and so successfully pursued by the republican party. 
But those reasons, they do believe, at this time exist, and to give 
them in the most phiin and undisguised manner to their con- 
stituents is the object of this address. 

" Formerly our annual elections were in the spring, and followed 
close upon the adjournment of the Legislature. The minds of 
the electors were drawn to the subject of the officers to be 
elected, and, if a Governor and Lieutenant-Governor were of the 
number, the public mind of the whole State was occupied in can- 
vassing the merits of the several individuals who might chance 
to be named for those distinguished offices ; and ordinarily, 
before the members of the Legislature were called togetlier to 
name the candidate, the public feeling had marked the man to 
receive that honor too strongly to be mistaken. I5ut if at any 
time this may not have been the case, yet that same feeling 
would be in a state of preparation to have its doubts and per- 
plexities resolved, by the naming of one from the number of 
persons who might be too nearly balanced in the public mind 
to enable the superior qualifications of either to produce a pre- 
ponderance in his favor. Then, too, all the conflicting candi- 
dates for those offices were put before the public at about the 
same period, and their respective qualifications were weighed 
with a reference to the relative merits and defects of each ; an 
entire view of the persons from which a choice was to be made 



108 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

was presented to the elector at once, and liis judgment was 
formed from a comparative estimate of all the candidates. Now 
the annual elections are in the fall, and nearly seven months 
from the time at which a nomination must be made, if made by 
the republican members of the Legislature in the usual manner. 

" Hence the candidate is named at a time when the public mind 
is not aroused by the excitements of an approaching election ; 
when no immediate interest is felt in a question, the determina- 
tion of which is so remote ; when the great body of the commu- 
nity cannot be drawn to an attention of the real interests they 
have in such a designation, and when the majority of the electors 
of the State have neither pointed to the man who should be put 
in nomination, or weighed the merits of the respective competi- 
tors for so high a distinction. In the meantime, no candidate is 
nominated in opposition to the one thus selected until a short 
time before the election ; but the individual receiving this early 
mark of the confidence in his political friends is put to the 
necessity of bearing the test of public scrutiny against himself ; 
of having his positive and negative qualifications canvassed and 
discussed by the partial pens of political opponents, whilst the 
standard by which he is compared, instead of being an opposing 
candidate for office ^ — human and errino- like himself — is that 
ideal perfection with which the human mind is so apt to deceive 
itself, and which we rather wish than expect to find in men. He 
stands alone, for half the year, before the public, inviting the 
scrutiny of his political friends and the criticism of his political 
enemies, while his antagonist, by a comparison witli whom he 
might bear the one and rise superior to the other, is unnoticed, 
because he is unknown. 

"The merits of men, if merits they can be called, exist mostly 
by comparison, and few indeed can be found who are able, for 
so great a length of time, without the benefit of this comparison, 
to endure, uninjured, the storm of political opposition, interested 
in the destruction of that character which it has been well said 
' is tarnished by too much handling.' Hence, prepossessions and 
prejudices are formed against the candidate who stands so long 
alone before the public, which preclude the possibility of an 
impartial comparison, when a counter-nomination affords the 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 109 

opportunity. Bui on the contrary, the mind of the elector, 
having become biased against the candidate, whose defects have 
been exliibited and magnitied l)y long and frequent repetition, 
seizes the alternative presented by a fresh nomination, not because 
the faults of the second candidate are less, but because they are 
less known to him. 

"Another important advantage, which we give to our oppo- 
nents by so early a nomination, is the opportunity of forming 
combinations of local feeling and local interests against any per- 
son we might put in nomination, and of selecting their candidates 
with reference to such sectional and partial interests, to the 
exclusion of a fair expression of the electors of the State in 
reference to the principles of the person to be elected. That 
many parts of the State are more or less affected with questions 
of a local and sectional nature will always be true, and that such 
questions, whenever they may exist, and whatever may be their 
extent or importance, should not be made the engines of a political 
party, or the subjects of a deceptive encouragement, given lor 
political i)urposes, is also true. If, then, the candidates of both or 
all ])olitit-al parties are put before the public, at nearly the same 
time, all have an equal interest in refraining from or attempting 
these combinations ; all select their candidates with a knowledge 
of the same facts, and all have an equal time to embody their 
friends, and the various interests of every part of tlie State, in 
favor of their i-espective candidates. Hence these local combina- 
tions must be far less partial, and consequently the evil to be 
apprehended from them far less extensive. These are some of 
the reasons which have induced the republican members of the 
Legislature to omit, at this time, making the nominations of the 
candidates of Governor and Lieutenant-Governor in the manner 
heretofore practiced. 

" But what mode of nomination of these offices to recommend to 
their constituents, or in what manner candidates shall be brought 
before the public, has been a question of somewhat difficult solu- 
tion. No plan, however, has been suggested which seemed so 
likely to produce a satisfactory result as that of calling a general 
State convention, and they have, therefore, unanimously con- 
cluded to recommend to the republican party of the State that 



110 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

mode of making these nominations. That substantial objections, 
in a State so large as ours, exist to this recommendation, they are 
fully sensible; and that considerable personal sacrifices, and, in 
some instances, heavy expenditures, must be incurred to carry 
this recommendation into efiect, they are equally aware. That 
some counties may omit to appoint delegates; that county con- 
ventions in others may be thinly attended, and that delegates 
apjiointed may, in some instances, fail to attend a State conven- 
tion, are also evils justly to be apprehended. But objections 
may be found to the most perfect of human institutions, and 
your representatives, in recommending the adoption of this mode 
of nomination^ feel the fullest confidence that that deep and 
active interest which is felt by every republican in the preserva- 
tion and success of his party and his principles, will induce him 
to meet and obviate these difticulties with the same cheerfulness 
with which he must repeatedly have encountered other and 
greater evils. 

" The appi'oaching election is an important one to the republi- 
can party of this State, both on account of the number and 
importance of the offices to be elected, and on account of 
the peculiar effect the result of that election may, and pio- 
bably will, have upon the future strength and prosperity of 
the party itself. The history of the last two years furnishes 
all the instruction necessary to direct us successfully through 
the coming contest. The divisions which unfortunately dis- 
tracted and divided the republican jjarty in 1824 were created 
by a premature enlistment of our prejudices and partialities 
towards the several distinguished individuals who were then 
before the public as candidates for the presidency. In the inten- 
sity of those prejudices and those pai'tialities, and that, too, when 
our real interests were the same, we forgot our duty to ourselves, 
dissolved the strong ties which had so long bound us together, 
and the consequences are fresh in the recollection of every repub- 
lican. But when reflection i*eturned, that strong attachment to 
sound piinciples and usages, which, when left to its free exercise, 
has never failed to insure success, again restored us to harmony 
and gained our election. Shall we not, then, profit by the lessons 
which experience has so recently taught us? Shall we again, and 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. Ill 

so soon, suffer ourselves to be divided by the same causes that 
produced our former divisions — to be defeated by the same 
causes that produced our late disunion ? 

"It is not to be disguised that prejudices and partialities, as to 
the next presidential election, are already beginning to prevail; 
that a variety of interests are actively engaged in preparing for 
that distant struggle, and that efforts will be made to intermix 
those prejudices, those partialities and those interests in our next 
State election. If wisdom is to be learned from experience, 
republicans will be cautious. If they are honest to themselves 
they will remain united. They will surrender their partialities 
for men, to their attachment to the interests of the party and the 
State. They will select as candidates for office, not the followers of 
any man, but the followers and adherents of republican principles, 
and, without inquiring for their presidential partialities, they will 
support them as republicans. In choosing delegates to the conven- 
tion, let it be a subject of interest to the yeomanry of the respective 
counties that their delegations are selected from the sound 
democracy of theii- county; that tliey ai-e men of liberal views, 
but of unshaken constancy — men Avho, in selecting a candidate 
for the office of Governor, will not ask, is he friendly to this or 
that num for the presidency, but is he a republican ? Has he 
been lirm in his adherence to republican priiicii)les and the 
re[»ublican cause? Is he honest, capable, and faithful to the 
CJonstitution V In a convention composed of such delegates, no 
divisions are to be apprehended; but the selection of candidates 
who would unite the feelings and secure the support of the whole 
l)arty would be the certain result. Pursue a different course and 
our former divisions are renewed, our strength divided, and our 
defeat inevitable. Republicans! the present political calm in 
this State is deceptive and portentous. Suffer not yourselves to 
be deluded by it. It is the stillness which precedes an impending 
storm. Permit not yourselves to sleep till you are swept away 
by its fury. Your o})})onents are not changed. They would 
fain amuse you with their song of peace, while they rally from 
defeat and prepare again to meet you at the polls. But let the 
union which now prevails among republicans be cherished and 
preserved; let the recent prejudices which have existed pass 



112 Life and Tlmks of Silas Wrjght. 

away with the causes which have produced tliem, and suffer not 
others of a similar character to be admitted in their stead; let 
your candidates for office be carefully and judiciously selected — 
men honest, faithful and capable, uniting the confidence and 
feelings of republicans — and you have nothing to fear from the 
consequences of such a meeting. Consider the proposed altera- 
tion in the manner of nominating your Governor and Lieutenant- 
Governor not as an abandonment of principles and usages which 
have heretofore governed and sustained the democracy of the 
State, but as an alteration rendered necessary by the change in 
the organization of your government, and rather as an additional 
inducement to a rigid adherence to the principle of regular nomi- 
nations by delegated conventions. Let your town conventions 
be punctually and carefully attended, — your county conventions 
represented by a sound, a judicious delegation, and you will thus 
insure a State convention whose proceedings may prove that the 
interests of the party are bettered by the change in the mode of 
nomination. Your last election proves that you have the power 
to succeed; that harmony of sentiment and concert of action will 
render you irresistible ; in short, that if you are defeated, you 
will defeat yourselves. 

" John Bowman. Joshua Smith. 

Jonas Cleand. Latham A. Burrows. 

Charles Stebbins. Francis Cooper. 

James Burt. Sherman Wooster. 

Henry B. Cowles. David Gardiner. 

Silas Wright, Jr. Thomas Crary. 

Jonas Earll, Jr. Samuel Young. 

Daniel Cruger. Stukely Ellsworth. 

Isaac R. Adriance. Thomas Dibble. 

Peter Hagar, 2d. Daniel D. Akin. 

Baron S. Doty. Jacob Haight. 

Stephen Allen. Robert Eldridge. 

Parley Keyes. Levi Beardsley. 

Augustus Filley. Wells Lake. 

David Benedict. Josiah Fisk. 

P. R. Livingston. Nathan Benson. 

Willam Fitch. James Mallory. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



113 



Philip Brasher. 
James McCall. 
John G. Forbes. 
David W. Bucklin. 
William Nelson. 
Maltby Gelston. 
Phineas Stanion. 
Usher H. Moore. 
James Hall. 
Wm. Tov/nsend. 
William Pierce. 
Benj. Hendricks. 
David Tropp. 
Peter Robinson. 
Fkeborn G. Jewett. 
Daniel Wardwell. 
Ab'm Shultz. 
Tilly Lynde. 
James Wiley. 
Joseph Scofield. 
Martinus Maitice. 
Hen. Williams. 
Williams Seaman. 
James W. Glashen. 
David Woodcock. 
Avery Smith. 
Isaac Minard. 

8 



Elial T. Foote. 
Chauncey Betts. 
Arch'd McIntyre. 
John French, 
Josiah Churchill. 
Robert Monell. 
E. A. G. B. Grant. 
Wm. a. Tompson. 
Horatio Orris. 
Isaac Hayes. 
John Tracy. 
Jon. E. Robinson. 
Ogdkn Hoffman. 
Eamona Varney. 
Erastus Root. 
Martin Lawrence. 
Grattan Wheeler. 
Nicholas Schuyler. 
John Lynde. 
David Willard. 
Daniel Scot. 
Hudson M'Farlan. 
J. H. Williamson. 
Alpiieus Sherman. 
Amos IMiller. 
Benj. Woodward. 
John H. Smith." 



114 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter XXVII. 

THE VAN BUREN LETTER. 

A calm survey of tlio field of battle of 1824 furnislied 
ample materials for reflection upon tlie past and specula- 
tions upon the future. There was found far more to con- 
demn than to approve. But, to active and aspiring men, 
the future furnislied most ample ground for contempla- 
tion. It was believed that Mr. Clinton would be nomi- 
nated for re-election in the fall of 1826, and that he had 
determined that he would sup})ort Gen. Jackson at the 
next presidential election. ]\Ir. Van Buren was then in 
the United States Senate at Washington, and it was 
known that he had concluded to support the General. 
It then became a question whether the democratic party 
should nominate a candidate to run against Mr. Clinton 
for Governor, or let the election go by default. It was 
known that a large portion of those formerly designated 
as Bucktails could not be induced to vote for Mr. Clinton. 
It was said in Albany that Mr. Van Buren, under the 
circumstances, thought that no nomination, in opposition 
to Mr. Clinton, ought to be made. Mr. Wkight and 
others there looked at the matter from another stand- 
point, and had arrived at a different conclusion. At 
Albany it was thought best to communicatn their views 
to Mr. Van Buren, and Mr. Wright was selected for that 
duty. 

In a letter addressed to Alva Hunt, dated the 20th of 
September, 1844, Mr. Weight refers to this subject and 
says : 

"This is a sketch of tlie circumstances under which tlie letter 
was written, Mr. Adams was elected President by the House of 



Life amj Times of ^Silas Wrjuht. 115 

Representatives, in Februiiry, IS'25. Mi\ Clay had suippcrted liim 
an<l taken oftice under liini, and Gen. Jaekson had been announced 
as a candidate against him, and Mr. Clinton had become a Jackson 
man. Ilis object was to retain the political power of the State, and 
show to the Union tliat he held it. Our democracy had been, at 
the election of 1S24, much divided between Adams, Crawford, 
CUay and Calhoun, there being no party for Gen. Jackson. Those 
who had been for Adams and Clay were not ready, in the winter 
of 1 825-26, to come out against Mr. Adams' administration, and 
go in for Gen, Jackson, though the })olicy of the administration, 
then being developed during the first session of Congress under 
it, was fast makino; them see that Mr. Adams had really been the 
federal candidate. The republicans who had l)een friendly to 
Mr. Crawford and Mr. Calhoun were ready to range themselves 
on \\w side of Gen. Jackson. Mr. Clinton wished to make that 
(piesticni at the ap[)roaching Governor's election, to be the Jackson 
candidate for Governor himself ; knowing, as he did, that the 
federal party would nominate him and no one else, as they did, 
early in the season ; and we had reason, at Albany, to believe 
that Mr. Van Buren, at Washington, was entertaining the opinion 
that we liad better make no nomination of Governor, and let ."Mr. 
Clinton run alone. 

" ( Jov. Marcy, Mr. Flaffu-, Judge Keves and mvsolf, with almost 
all our other friends at Albany, entertained a different opinion, 
and by the particular request of those three friends T wrote the 
letter and showed it to them, and st'ut it to Mr. \ . B. You will 
see, from reading it, that T had (in view) two objects: first, that 
we should nominate and i-un a candidate for Governor, against 
Mr. (Minton, to keep our party in the State together; and, second, 
that we should not make the president ial <piest ion at that elec- 
tion, because it would divide the democracy, and I was confident 
that time would bring them all to oppose Mr. Adams. Tlu' i-eal 
offense was, and is yet, that tlu' letter aided to break njt another 
intrigue, having for its object the division and defeat of the 
democratic party in the State, and Mr. V. B. being absent at 
Washington, and not having the opportunity to see the move- 
ments at home, we feared was about to be deceived and misled 
by it." 



116 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

As to the manner of this letter being obtained and 
made pnblic, he says : 

" It was not in u piece of furniture sold at auction, as the pub- 
lishers of it now pretend — nor was that the first pretense — but 
it was purloined, Mr. V. B. never knew how or by whom. It 
was a private letter, and bears that character upon its face, as 
published, and so purloined it was published; and I have many 
reasons for supposing Jabez D, Hammond, the historian, could 
tell, if he should choose, as much about the whole matter as any 
man living. All the stories assume that the letter must have 
left Mr. V. B.'s possession when he removed from Albany, upon 
his appointment as Secretary of State, under Gen. Jackson, in 
the spring of 1829; and yet it was not published until the fall of 
1830, having been retained more than a year and a half, and over 
one election." 

This letter was dated the 4th of April, 1826. In it, 
Mr. Wright stated, among other things, that great 
"alarm had been excited among his political friends in 
Albany, because Mr, JSToah, of the National Advocate, in 
the city of New York, editor of a democratic and Craw- 
ford paper, and some others in that city, had come out 
for Mr. Clinton for Governor and Nathaniel Pitcher for 
Lieutenant-Governor." Mr. Wriuht contended that 
such a policy would be unwise and dangerous ; that the 
Adams party, which then composed a large portion of 
the democratic part}^, would, if no candidate in opposi- 
tion to Mr. Clinton was regularly nominated, make a 
nomination, and such candidate, he said, ' ' the great 
body of our political friends throughout the State would 
enlist themselves to support against Mr. Clinton, 



f> 



"■ Should we decline to sup})ort the candidate run against Mr. 
Clinton because he was friendly to Adams, this would inevitably 
induce the friends of that candidate, two-thirds of whom, so far 
as the State is concerned, would be our friends, not only to run 
for Congress, Senate and Assembly tickets, but to run them 
pledged for Adams, In any event, then, from this state of 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 117 

thiiifs, it does appear to me that we should be between two 
fires, without the least prospect of escaping tlie flames, instead 
of bringing off the spoils.'''' 

This last sentiment was the subject of severe animad- 
version, and especially by hypocrites who had devoted 
their lives to work of securing political "spoils." ISTot 
one of those who were loud and severe in these denun- 
ciations failed to secure spoils to the greatest possible 
extent. The principle is old, and the practice is only lim- 
ited by unsuccessful efforts of hungry partisans. 

Mr. Wright then proceeds to consider the question of 
who should be nominated. He, under the seal of confi- 
dence, discusses with freedom the merits of several gen- 
tlemen who had been spoken of for nomination. Among 
these was William B. Rochester, then circuit judge of the 
eighth district, and Nathan Sanford, late chancellor, and 
others. His description of each is graphic and just, both 
personally and politically. He finally recommended the 
nomination of Mr. Sanford. 

Mr. Hammond, in his History, expresses the opinion 
that Mr. Van Buren brought this letter with him when 
he canu! from Washington to All)any, in January, 1829, 
to be inaugurated Governor of New York, and on return- 
ing in Mar(!h, to Ix^come Secretary of State under Gen. 
Jackson, it was accidontly left in a bureau which was sold 
at auction, and bid in by one Frederick Porter, a mer- 
chant of Albany. He adds, that Porter brought the 
letter to him, and that he advised him to return it to Mr. 
Wkioiit, who was then Comptroller of the State. This 
Mr. Porter allowed the letter to be published in the Work- 
ingmen's Advocate, an an ti- democratic paper. Mr. 
Hammond thus accounts for his having th(? knowledge on 
this subject which occasioned the remark of Mr. Wright 
in his letter to Mr. Hunt. It does not seem possible that 
this letter was sold in a desk at auction, and retained a 
year and a half by the purchaser before showing it. 



118 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Why did not Porter act on Hammond's advice 'i It was 
doubtless purloined, but whether by Porter, or who else, 
there is no evidence. 

It cannot be doubted that the design of this publica- 
tion was to involve Mr. Wright in difficulty with those 
whose characters and positions he had so freely but 
truthfully discussed. But those causing the publication 
of this confidential letter utterly failed in accomplishing 
their unjustifiable and malignant object. The })ersons 
to whom he referred promptly notified Mr. Wright 
that they saw nothing wrong on his part, and that it 
should, in no respect, alTect their friendly relations. The 
principal effect of this publication was to show to the 
public that it was the young Senator from St. Lawrence, 
instead of senior politicians, who had combined and led 
the distracted democratic party in New York out of its 
entanglements, and enabled it to make Mr. Van Buren 
Governor in 1828, which contributed to the elevation of 
Gen. Jackson to the presidency, and the triumph of the 
democratic party in the State for a long series of years. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 119 



Chapter XXVIIl. 

NOMINATED AND ELECTED TO CONGRESS. 

No public officer ever more rapidly won the esteem of 
his associates than Mr. Wright in the State Senate. 
His talents, frankness, candor and conciliatory de2:)ort- 
ment commanded the respect not only of political friends, 
but even of his adversaries of the severest kind. The 
abuse heaped upon him by the Clintonians and people's 
party, in relation to the electoral law, excited the strong 
symj^athy of the entire democratic party in the State, 
and especially in northern New York. Mr.' Wright 
resided in the twentieth congressional district, consisting 
of St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Livingston and Oswego 
counties, then represented by Nicholl Fosdick, of St. 
Lawrence, and Daniel Hiignnin, of Oswego, elected by 
anti-democrats. The democracy of the district, with 
entire unanimity, and in accordance with the wishes of 
the party in the State, nominated him for Congress, with 
KudoI])li "Bunner, of Oswego, for a ('olleagiie. Mr. 
Wright was the first of the distinguished semiiteen, who 
was presented to the people for their suffrages. It was 
a distinct chalh^nge to the adversaries of \\\i^. democracy, 
who nominated Mr. Fosdick for re-election, and Elisha 
Camp, of Jefferson, as his associate. The contest was a 
most animated one, calling out the most active exertions 
of the friends of Mr. Wright on one side, and occasion- 
ing a most determined opposition on the other. A more 
warmly-contested congressional election had never been 
known in the State. Three of the celebrated seventeen 
resided in this district, and one, Mr. Wright, was a 
candidate brought forward, in part, at the instance of 



120 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

the other two — Parley Keyes, of Jefferson, and Alvin 
Bronson, of Oswego county. Mr. Bronson, one of the 
fah^est and best of men, was not noted as a politician ; 
but Mr. Keyes was esteemed one of the foremost in the 
State, — though without education, was distinguished for 
his sound sense, great shrewdness and untiring energy. 
No one managed a political contest with more vigor and 
skill. He was an ardent and sincere friend, and con- 
siderably advanced in years. Being in the Senate with 
him, he early discovered the talents and good qualities 
of Mr. Weight, and soon regarded him almost as a son. 
This called out his best exertions. With such supporters 
the effort to defeat Mr. Wright was doomed to fail. 
Mr. Bunner was a most excellent man, who had not been 
in public life so as to become a special target to be aimed 
at. The contest was really over Mr. Wright. Through 
him the democracy triumphed. He and Mr. Bunner 
were elected by over 500 majority. Under the circum- 
stances, this was a wonderful triumph. His political 
enemies had expected to crush him out and destroy all 
future ho23e concerning him. But his triumph laid the 
foundation for a long and successful career in public 
life, during which he commanded the esteem, respect 
and confidence of all good men to an unequaled extent. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 121 



Chapter XXIX. 

RETIRES FROM THE STATE SENATE. 

Under Ms election to Congress, in November, 1826, Mr. 
Weight became entitled to take liis seat in the House of 
Representatives on the 4tli of March, 1827. Between 
these two x3eriods he continued to perform his duties as 
Senator. Some of his most important services were then 
rendered. His great report on the canal policy was then 
prepared. Not wisliing to run any hazard concerning the 
action of Gov. Clinton, in case he continued in the 
Senate after the third of March, he resigned his senator- 
ship, to take effect on the fourth of March. To promote 
the convenience of others, and witliout profit to himself, 
he had continued to hold the office of postmaster at Can- 
ton. This he also resigned, to take effect on the same 
day. These two resignations put an end to the warmly 
agitated question of the Governor's declaring his seat in 
Congress vacant, and issuing a writ of election to fill a 
vacancy. 

The expressions of regret on Mr, Wright's retu'iiig 
from the Senate were general and heartfelt. Those who 
differed with him in oiiinion admired his candor and 
frankness, and respectful deportment and superior 
talents, while he was almost idolized by his political 
friends. The aged parted with him as from a son, 
expressing strong hopes and expectations of his future 
in the new field upon which he w^as about to enter, and 
the young as parting from a kind, unselfish brother, 
whose footsteps it was safe to follow. No man ever 
retired from a legislative body more esteemed and 
respected by all 



122 Life A^D Tnihs of Silas Wright. 



Chapter XXX. 

WHAT HE OMITTED TO DO. 

The immense size of St. Lawrence county, and the 
expectation that the county buiklirigs woukl be removed 
from Ogdensburgh to the central position at Canton, has 
been mentioned among tlie inducements for Mr. WiiiGnT''s 
locating at that place. Under such circumstances it 
might have been expected that he would become an agi- 
tator of that question. It would have been easy for liim 
while in the Senate to have procured the passage of an 
act requiring the removal, after having made suitable 
land purchases to profit by it. But he did neither. The 
selfishness of others precipitated action when it occurred. 
People in Jefferson county sought the formation of a new 
county by uniting a part of St. Lawrence with a portion of 
Jeft' erson, fixing the county buildings at Ox-bow. Others 
in the east end of St. Lawrence wanted the county divided, 
making a new county, with public buildings at Potsdam, 
leaving the old county with the court-house at Ogdens- 
burgh. These schemes were manfully resisted by the people 
of Canton and other places. They correctly insisted that 
the influence and importance of the county would be 
greatly diminished by the division. Each portion would 
have its own separate interests, in which the other would 
not participate. If kept together, the county would soon 
have three members in the Assembly, and would wield a 
powerful influence in tlie politics and legislation of tke 
State. Tke question of removal became one of controlling 
importance in tke local election of 1827, and was decided 
by tke people, wko elected Jabez Wiiles and Moses Row- 
ley to tke Assembly, as friendly to tliat measure. On 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 123 

the 28th of January, 1828, wlien Mr. Weight had been 
some two months attending to his duties in Congress, and 
had been out of the Senate nearly a year, the act for 
removal was passed. At that time he had made no pur- 
chases of real estate or other preparations, to profit one 
cent thereby. The removal was in pursuance of the voice 
of the majority of the voters of the county. It was tlie 
work of tlie people, and not of Mr. Weight tlirough 
his unbounded influence in the Legislature. Nothing 
could more conclusively demonstrate that he was utterly 
unselfish, and that on no occasion would he make his 
official position the means of improving his pecuniary 
affairs. In his course on this subject we have the clearest 
possible evidence that, in all such matters, he was guided 
by duty, and not by love of dollars. 



124 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 



Chapter XXXI. 

MR. WRIGHT IN THE TWENTIETH C0NC4RESS AT ITS FIRST 

SESSION. 

Mr. Wkight took the Constitutional oath, and a seat 
in Congress, on the 3d of December, 1827. The result of 
the presidential election of 1824 had left the political 
situation in an anomalous condition. The number of 
candidates for the chair of State had been reduced to two. 
Mr. Crawford had retired to a judgeship in Georgia. Mr. 
Calhoun was enjoying the honors of the Vice- Presidency. 
Mr. Clay had been absorbed by Mr. Adams, whom he 
was serving as Secretary of State. Mr. Adams, without 
a party in phalanx agreeing with him in everything, and 
ready to act on all occasions in concert, was laboring in 
the presidency, hoping to form a numerous and harmo- 
nious party. Gen. Jackson was enjoying home life, at 
the Hermitage, leaving to his friends the management of 
his political fortunes. The great issues to be tried by the 
electors, in 1828, had not been fully developed or pre- 
sented in tangible form. Each of the former candidates 
had friends, with views more or less definite on political 
subjects. 

Their numbers were sufficient to command respectful 
attention. But the labor of harmonizing them was not 
easy, if it was not a hopeless task. Mr. Adams had 
selected his positions in his messages, leaving Gen. Jack- 
son' s friends the advantage of general objections and the 
choice of unoccupied ground to stand upon. The coun- 
try resembled a chess-board, with armies arrayed, with- 
out players who could calculate with certainty what 
service each individual will perform. The inducement 



Life and Ti3ies of Silas Wright. 125 

wliich would bring one into line would upset and drive 
anotlier away. The leading players studied the field 
with reference to these considerations. Selfish motives, 
founded upon local interests, were oftener appealed to 
than constitutional and patriotic principles. The labor 
of harmonizing and combining such elements was the 
task committed to those giving direction to political 
opinion. 

It was conceded the New England, as well as certain 
aiiti-democratic States, would again go for Mr. Adams, 
and that certain southern and western States would vote 
for Gen. Jackson. But it was exjiected that the votes of 
New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio would control the 
result. The great game was played with reference to 
the votes of these States, whose wishes, as a whole, were 
unknown. Neither side sought concerted action through 
a national convention, and both repudiated caucuses. 
Each claimed to be democratic. 

A tariff to protect American manufactures was passed 
in 1816, by the votes of Lowndes and Calhoun, of South 
Carolina, Tucker and Newton, of Virginia, Forsyth, of 
Georgia, and otluu' southern gentlemen, as well as by 
Mr. Clay and members from New York, New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania. Gov. Yates, in 1824, and afterward in 
his annual messages, took ground in favor of encourag- 
ing domestic manufactures by an increase of duties on 
foreign importations. This theory was generally received 
as the true doctrine, except in New England, wliere 
navigation and commerce were the controlling interests, 
manufactures not then having become the leading busi- 
ness there. 

The feeling in New York was fully indicated hy reso- 
lutions introduced into the Assembly, on the 28th of 
January, 1828, by Daniel Wardwell, a strong Jackson 
man, from Jeiferson county, an excellent and good man, 
who subsequently served three terms in Congress. 



126 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

''^Resolved, That the Senators of this State, in the Congress of 
the United States, be and they are hereby instructed, and the 
Representatives of this State be requested, to make every proper 
exertion to effect such a revision of the tariff as will afford a 
sufficient protection to the growers of wool, hemp and flax, and 
the manufacture of iron, woolens and every other article, so far 
as the same may be connected with the interest of manufactures, 
agriculture and commerce. 

" Resolved, as the sense of this Legislature, That the provi- 
sions of the woolens bill, passed the House of Representatives at 
the late session of Congress, whatever advantages they may have 
promised to manufacturers of woolen goods, did not afford ade- 
quate encouragement to the agriculturalist and growers of wool." 

Both these resolutions passed the Assembly and Senate 
by a nnanhnous vote, and were transmitted to the Sena- 
tors and Members in Congress from New York by the 
Governor. 

It is indicative of the popular feeling that they passed 
without dissent, when we consider that it is not probable 
that one in ten ever read the woolens bill referred to, or 
had any precise knowledge on the general subject 
embraced in the resolutions. The country was excited 
upon one of the most abstruse subjects known to politi- 
cal economy, without having done so much as to give 
the subject "a sober second thought," if they had given 
it any thought at all. 

But these resolutions indicate the direction in wliicli 
popular opinion was setting — in favor of the farmer and 
the wool-grower, as much as of the manufacturer. They 
pointed out the ground which it was safe for a New York 
Member of Congress to occupy. It was a prudent posi- 
tion for Jackson men in that State to occupy. They 
indicated the chord which might be safely toitched, and 
the music which it might be expected to produce. From 
this brief review, the reader will be -prepared to scrutinize 
and understand the course of subsequent events for the 



I iFE AND Times of Silas Wright. 127 

next two years. Sncli was the condition of things when 
Mr. Wright entered npon his duties in Congress. His 
reputation for talents, industry, and many other good 
and useful qualities, had preceded him. 

The Committee on Manufactures, though not first in 
rank, was then deemed of the most importance politically. 
It had charge of the all-hnportant subject of the times. 
Kollin C. Mallory, who had been ten years in Congress, 
from Vermont, and an able and ardent protectionist, was 
made chairman of that committee. James S. Stevenson, 
of Pennsylvania, Lewis Condit, of New Jersey, Thomas 
P. Moore, of Kentucky, Silas Wright, Jr., of New 
York, William Stanberry, of Ohio, and William D. 
~T .■'■ of South Carolina, were members of it. All 
. i.uous and papers relating to manufactures and the 
:: lift* were referred to it. 

< ^he 31st of December, Mr. Malloiy, by direction of 
imittee, offered the following resolution : 
udvcd, That the Committee on Manufactures be vested witli 
ver to send for persons and papers." 

i>i;dng its discussion, Mr. Wright thus addressed thi- 
House as follows : 

" Mr. Wright, of New York, said that, as lie had been honore(l 
with a situation on the Committee of Manufactures, he felt tlic 
more entitled to ask tlie in(hdgence of the House in ottering- a 
few statements and explanations, in reply to what had been said 
on the other side ; and he would hrst remark it was three weeks, 
and not lour weeks, as had been said, since the members com- 
posing that committee had been announced to the House. For 
some days after their appointment, not a single memorial, either 
for or airainst an alteration of the i)resent tariff of duties, had 
been laid before them. Then a few petitions, very briefly and 
generally expressed, were received from two or three States ; and 
if the gentlemen, who seemed to censure the committee for negli- 
gence, had had an opportunity to examine these documents, they 
would have found that they all had relation to what had been 



128 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

denominated 'A National Convention in Pennsylvania.' Petitions 
of this kind Avere all that the committee had before them for a 
considerable time. When he said this, he meant officially before 
them, in such a manner that tlie committee could act upon tliem. 
He admitted, indeed, that the members of the committee had, 
individually, seen a pamphlet which had been freely circulated, 
and which had respect to the doings of that convention. But it 
was never officially before either House or the committee until 
about ten days ago. This was all the time the committee had 
had to deliberate on several distinct propositions submitted to 
them, and he might be permitted to refer to the proceedings of 
this House, and to its progress in business, as an answer to the 
imputations thrown out as to the industry of the committee. Tiie 
resolution which had been this day offered had been resolved on 
in committee some days ago, and it was presented to the House 
on the very first opportunity that offered. He had been an 
advocate for its adoption, and he would now briefly state some 
of the reasons that had influenced him. It had been said thjat 
all the information, necessary to a right decision on the general 
subject, is already before the House and the committee. This 
might be true for aught he knew. His own experience in legis- 
lation had been very short, and he was unable to say Avhat amount 
of knowledge might be possessed by others ; but for himself, 
from the industry which he had been aide to bring to bear within 
the short time allowed liim (and he liatl examined diligently all the 
public documents and reports of former committees which were 
said to contain this species of information), he found himself still 
greatly at a loss and in want of much information of which the 
2)ublic documents were destitute. Tiie whole subject stood in 
need of the exhibition of more precise detail. Two questions 
had been submitted to the committee; the first was, are any alter- 
ations at all, in the existing tariff, at this time necessary? It 
had been said that on this point the public mind had been deeply 
interested, and the public sentiment expressed with sufficient 
clearness to authorize the committee in coming to an affirmative 
decision. Should this be admitted, another question arose, and 
that was, to what extent is this alteration necessary, in order to 
attain the ends in view ? On this question, gentlemen might 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 129 

examine all the memorials of the mamifacturers, all the reports 
of the C(jmmittee of Manufactures, as well as the executive com- 
munications (at least as far as he had been able to investigate 
them), and they would not discover anything- to inform them 
whether five, eight or fifty per cent was to be added to the pre- 
sent rate of duties. Now, this was precisely the kind of informa- 
tion of which he stood in need; lie meant to be understood as 
referring to some pailicular bi-anches of manufacture, and there 
were others of a similar character on which other petitions might 
yet be presented. There were, however, some branches to which 
these remarks did not apply. But one chief subject on which he 
felt this want of information was the nuxnufacture of woolens. 
The Ilarrisburg convention had, on this subject, proposed a 
series of miiiimums to constitute a scale of duties, which, accord- 
ing to their judgment, was requisite and proper for the protection 
of that manufacture, liut had tlic members of that convention 
given to the world any facts calculated to show that the rales 
they pro[)os('d were sucli as i)recise]y to furnish the degree of 
protection required, and neither to fall shoit or to exceed it? He 
could not find this in tlieir pamphlet. 

" In what situation did he stand? As a servant of the House, 
he was conunanded to examine a certain subject, to bring his 
mind to a conclusion with respect to it, and re})ort a bill for the 
action of the House. The House had a claim upon him for the 
performance of that duty, and he was unwilling to be compelled 
to report upon the subject when he was not in j)Ossession of the 
facts requisite to form a decision. If, indeed, the House should 
say to liim, go on and do as well as you can with such lights as 
you have, he was perfectly willing to obey them. All he wished 
was to express the ditticulty under which lie labored in the dis- 
charge of his duty, and to ask the House to assist him. If tlu^y 
should Ijc of the opinion that it was not inqirojier to do so, he 
was entirely willing to proceed with such means of knowledge as 
were in his power. 

" To the questions whether this was a novel case, and whether 

the power now asked resided in the House, he did not profess 

himself able to decide ; his parliamentary experience had not 

been such as to enable him to do so. He would, however, sug- 

9 



130 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

gest to bis colleague [Mr. Oakley], who had offered the amend- 
ment, that, as it now stood, it did not require the witness who 
might be summoned to bring with him any papers. Supposing, 
then, that the committee should send for the agent of some 
manufacturing establishment, for the purpose of examining him 
in relation to its concerns, would not the witness, in order to 
give precise replies, want the books of the establishment ? By 
referring to these, his information would be rendered specific. 
He suggested, therefore, whether the amendment ought not to 
be so modified as to attain this object." 

The resolution was amended, on motion of Mr. Oaldey, 
by adding, "with a view to ascertain and report to the 
House such facts as may be useful to guide the judgment 
of this House in relation to a revision of the tariff duties 
on imported goods." 

The resolution was thoroughly discussed, and, after 
being thus amended, passed, ayes 102, Qiays 88. 

Clothed with such ample powers, the committee pro- 
ceeded to take evidence. Stenographers were not then 
employed by committees, and the evidence was all taken 
down by Mr. Weight, with his own hand. He drew 
the report presented by the chairman and the bill which 
accompanied it. These things involved labor from which 
most men would have shrunk. But he chose to perform 
it, as it enabled him fully to master the subject in hand. 

The bill conformed, in a very great extent, to the New 
York platform. Mr. Mallory moved to strike out certain 
provisions in the bill, deemed over-advantageous to the 
agriculturalist and wool-grower, and insert others of a 
different character. Upon this motion discussion arose. 
Mr. Wright then gave his views in a speech, which no 
one at the time answered, or attempted so to do. In 
this speech he presents the principle upon which, as a 
member of the committee, he acted in framing the report 
and bill. The following extracts will disclose the grounds 
upon which he stood : 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 131 

"And here, sir, it is my duty to premise that it has been my 
object, and I believe it to have been the object of a majority of 
the committee, to frame a bill which should have in view the 
protection of the leadinj^ interests of the countiy. I have sup- 
posed that, in all laws having reference to the protection of the 
domestic industry of this country, agriculture should be con- 
sidered the prominent and leading interest. This I have con- 
sidered the basis upon which the other great interests rest, and 
to which they are to be considered as subservient. Still, this is 
not to be considered as entitled to protection, exclusive of the 
manufacturing interest. I do not believe that a law which would 
be injurious to manufactures would be beneficial to agriculture; 
but I do believe that protection to manufactures should be given 
with express reference to the effect upon agriculture, and that 
no protection can be wise, or consistent with the policy of this 
government, which has not for its object to add strength and 
vigor to this great and vital interest of the country. The same 
may be said of the commercial interest, as it also is only subser- 
vient to the great interests of agriculture. 

" But, sir, it will be found difficult, if not impossible, to draw 
a bill intended to furnish general protection to the domestic 
industry of this country which will not, in some of its provisions, 
operate injuriously upon some one of the interests concerned, 
and in some sections of the country. One leading principle, 
however, which operated upon my mind in the formation of the 
present bill, is that it is not and cannot be the policy of this 
government, or of this Congress, to turn the manufacturing capi- 
tal of this country to the manufacture of a raw material of a 
foreign country, while we do or can produce the same material 
in sufficient quantities ourselves. 

" This I consider to be a rule of universal application, and to 
extend itself not only to the same raw material, but to any which 
shall be equally valuable, and may be substituted for the raw 
material imported; and I cannot suppose that, in legislating for 
the protection of the industry of the country, this rule should 
ever be lost sight of." 

Such were the view^s entertained by Mr. Wright, 
which he urged upon Congress in a very elaborate speech. 



132 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

IJe followed the views of tlie people of liis State and 
district on tlie question of jirotection, without investi- 
gating or discussing the principle involved in conl'erring 
it. The principle of making agriculture the leading sub- 
ject of consideration could not be questioned, although 
in practice our government has done little or nothing to 
promote its interest. In refusing to give the manufacturer 
of wool a preference over the wool-grower, Mr. Wkigiit 
acted in accordance with the wishes of a large portion of 
the people. He was considered one of the ablest and most 
fearless champions of tlie farmer in Congress. This led 
to his re-election to Congress in the fall of the year 1828. 

His political adversaries manifested their chagrin at 
seeing Mr. Wiiigiit take so prominent a part on this 
tariff question, and rising so far above the position 
assigned, in the public estimation, to their friend, Mr. 
Mallory, the chairman of the Committee on Manufactures. 
Prior to the publication of his speech in defense of tlie 
agricultural interest, the Adams newspapers attempted 
to ridicule his effort, and described him as a man of no 
importance, who resided "way up north, beyond the 
Chateaugay woods." The speech spoke for itself, and 
placed him in the front rank of wise and thinking men, 
and an able debater. No one had examined the ques- 
tions involved with more industry or discussed them 
with greater ability. B}^ common consent lie was 
assigned a high position in Congress and among his 
political friends. The effort at ridicule gave place to 
high respect and often to sincere admiration. 

Mr. Mallory failed to secure the amendment which he 
proposed. The bill was considerably modified in the 
House and essentially changed in the Senate, in which 
shape it finally passed, nearly all the southern members 
voting against it. 

The bill, as finally passed, was avowedly one for the 
protection of growers, producers and manufacturers, and 



Life and Timeu of Silas Wright. 133 

not for revenue. The southern people called it a "bill 
of abominations." They conceded the right to raise 
revenue by imposing a tariff of duties, and that, a s an 
incident, protection might be given ; but denied, emphati- 
cally, the right otherwise to give protection. Impost 
duties for the pur^^ose of protection have long since been 
rei)udiated. Even Mr. Clay, the great champion of the 
"American system," declared that he would no longer 
sustain a tariff for protection "for the sake of protec- 
tion." The true constitutional principle, as subsequently 
presented and defended by Mr. Wright, is now almost 
universally admitted, but in practice is continually vio- 
lated by Congress. 



134 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter XXXII. 

MR. WRIGHT AND MR. BARNARD. 

The position of Mr. Wright, a new member, in sus- 
taining a bill whicli did not commjand the support of the 
chairman of the committee who reported it, was peculiar 
and embarrassino'. He had to encounter not onlv John 
Davis and Isaac C. Bates, of Massachusetts, Elisha Whit- 
tlesey, of Ohio, and many other experienced members, 
but John W. Taylor, Dudley Marvin, Daniel D. Barnard 
and Henry R. Stoors, among his own colleagues. Each 
challenged some of his positions, and was so promptly 
and conclusively answered as to render an effective reply 
impossible. 

Mr. Barnard, then representing the Rochester district, 
took the bold ground that he was for such protection as 
would become "virtual prohibition." In the course of 
a long speech he attempted to be facetious at the expense 
of Mr. Weight. Among other things he said : 

" I understood ray colleague to appeal to our pati-iotisra for the 
encouragement of coarse wool, because the sheep which produces 
it is a native of this country. Indeed ! My friend and colleague 
is a lawyer, and I should be glad to have him inform me how many 
generations removed from their merino or Saxony ancestor, intro- 
duced into this country, a flock must be before they would 
become naturalized in the country, — before they would become 
entitled to our patriotic protection equally with those 

" ' whose blood 
Has crept through [natives] ever since the flood ! ' " 

The following caustic reply was occasioned more by the 
tone and manner of Mr. Barnard, than by what he is 
reported to have said, which was doubtless designed to 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 135 

annoy and occasion ridicule. In his reply Mr. Weight 
said : 

" But, Mr. Chairman, are we to enter upon this doctrine of 
monopoly ? Am I to agree that this is the only and correct stop- 
ping point in the protective system ? I had supposed that when 
I put the American manufacturer upon a par with the foreigner, 
and not only so, but left against the foreigner the whole of the 
expense and charges of bi'inging his goods to our markets, I had 
granted a fair protection to our manufacturer, but not that I had 
thereby granted him a monopoly. Such protection, and more, is 
furnished by the bill as reported by the committee. But, sir, it 
is not monopoly, and hence denunciations against that bill. 
Hence, too, I suppose, the arguments of the gentleman from Ver- 
mont (Mr. Mallory) have been heard against the proposition of 
the member from Pennsylvania (Mr. Buchanan), because that 
proposition will not effect the desired monopoly. 

" I must here be permitted, Mr. Chairman, to correct a misrep- 
resentation of one of my own arguments used upon a former 
occasion. I was represented by my colleague (Mr, Barnard) as 
having urged the protection of the native wool of this country 
in preference to, if not to the exclusion of, other kinds and quali- 
ties of wool. Sir, I used no such argument. The bill makes no 
such provision ; nor has any such distinction beeu suggested by 
me. But the terms and language of my colleague, in making this 
representation, deserve a moment's notice. After he had given 
this turn to my argument, he informed the House that I was a 
lawyer, and then appealed to me in that character — and in a 
strain of eloquence, to which he was aided by a draft upon the 
poets — to inform him how far removed from the blood of the 
merino a sheep must be to entitle it to protection upon my prin- 
ciples. When at home, sir, I bear the appellation of a lawyer ; 
and whether my colleague intended to apply it to me here 
reproachfully or not, I know not ; but I have not considered a 
place in that respectable profession disgraceful, I have already 
said that my colleague misrepresented my argument. He equally 
mistook my information. I will assure that honorable gentleman 
that I have never inquired into the decrees of blood of sheep or 



136 Life and Times of Silas Wrigut. 

men. No ijart of luy education has led me to these inquiries. 
No branch of the profession of tlie law which I have studied, 
whatever may have been the fact with my colleague, has fur- 
nished one with tlie information he asks. None of my ambition 
is drawn from considerations of blood, and it therefore never lias 
been any part of my business to trace the blood of men or 
beasts. It never shall be any part of my business, sir, until that 
system of monopoly is established in this country which my col- 
league so ardently wishes and so loudly and so boldly calls for 
from this committee. When that time shall arrive, his blood 
may rate him among the monopolists. Tiien, too, sir, the degrees 
of blood of ray kindred, of ray friends, may determine whether 
they are to labor in the factories or be ranked among the monopo- 
lists ; and then, if my honorable colleague will make this api^eal 
to me as to the deacrees of blood of these relatives and these 
friends, it shall be my duty carefully and accurately and dis- 
tinctly to answer him." 

Mr. Barnard quailed under this rebuke, so gently but 
forcibly given, wlnle it greatly elevated Mr. Wrigut in 
tlie estimation of all who heard or read it, to whatever 
political party they might belong. Mr. Barnard never 
again invited a contest with Mr. Wright, by whom he 
had thus been so signally discomforted. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 137 



Chapter XXXIII. 

RE-ELECTION TO CONGRESS. 

In the fall of 1828, by the unanimous approval of the 
enthe democracy of the district, Mr. Wright was nomi- 
nated for re-election to Congress. Parley Keyes, of Jeffer- 
son county, one of the ^'seventeen," was placed on the 
ticket with him, both avowed supporters of Gen. Jackson 
for the presidency. The Adams party nominated Joseph 
Hawkins, of Jefferson, and George Fisher, of Oswego. 
The candidates for electors in that district were Charles 
Dugan and Alvin Bronson, on the Jackson side, and 
Jesse Smith, of Jefferson, and Augustus Chapman, of 
St. Lawrence, on the Adams side. The latter were 
elected by a majority of 102. The contest was a sharp 
one, and called out much bitterness of feeling. Gen. 
Jackson was described by his enemies as a ferocious 
monster, who had, without the authority of law, hung 
six militia men, as well as committed other similar crimes 
and offenses. Coffin handbills made a conspicuous dis- 
play, and sundry citizens avowed their determination, if 
he sliould be elected, to remove to Canada to get beyond 
his power. Although a vigorous attempt was made to 
arouse former prejudices against Mr. Weight, they failed 
to have any effect adverse to him. In October, before the 
election, he reviewed his brigade of militia — the 149tli, 
Twelfth Division — which included the wnole of St. Law- 
rence and a part of Jefferson county, whicli brought him 
in contact with nearly half of the voters in the district. 
Free intercourse with the people not only dispelled 
all prejudice against him, but induced many political 
opponents to give him their support. His political 
adversaries over-acted their parts in describing him. The 



138 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

reaction was advantageous to Mm. He was elected by a 
handsome majority, while the residue of the democratic 
ticket in the district failed. Mr. Hawkins, of the Adams 
ticket, was elected to Congress over Parley Keyes. 
Owing to blunders in the returns, by omitting the word 
"Junior," in several towns, a certificate of election was 
given to George Fisher, who took a seat in the House of 
Representatives. Mr. Wright gave him notice, and 
took evidence proving that he was legally elected, which 
was presented to Congress and promptly acted upon. 
The committee to whom the petition and evidence were 
referred reported in favor of Mr. Wright's claim to a 
seat, and Mr. Fisher was ousted from his, after serving 
eight days, from the 7th to the 15th of December, 1829. 
Owing to his having been appointed Comptroller of the 
State, Mr. Wright did not take his seat, but immediately 
resigned. At the next election, in 1829, Jonah Sanford, 
of St. Lawrence, was elected to fill the vacancy, and served 
through the second session of the twenty-first Congress. 

The result of the election in 1828 was highly gratifying 
to Mr. Wright and his friends. It proved that, after all 
the efforts to crush him, he was, in his district, stronger 
than his party. Instead of weighing down his ticket, he 
had helped to lift it up, which showed that he enjoyed 
not only the confidence of his political friends, but the 
marked personal esteem of many of those belonging to 
the adverse party. It was his deserved personal high 
standing that secured his success at this election. No. 
one then voting for him ever lived to regret it. On the 
contrary, all were proud of having contributed to his 
elevation, whenever they did so. 

Mr. Wright, in the fall of 1828, attended, as a delegate 
from St. Lawrence county, the democratic State conven- 
tion at Herkimer which nominated Martin Van Buren 
for Governor and Enos T. Throop for Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor, both of whom were elected in November. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 139 



Chapter XXXIV. 

ELECTED COMPTROLLER. 

The office of Comptroller of the State of New York, 
though not highest in rank, is one of very great import- 
ance. Like the Secretary of the Treasury in the federal 
government, he is the highest financial oflicer of the 
State, not subject to the control of even the Governor. 
He reports annually, direct to the Legislature, a com- 
plete statement of the funds of the State, and estimates 
the expenses for the ensuing year. He suggests plans 
for the improvement of the State revenues, settles all 
accounts in which the State is interested, not otherwise 
provided by law, and draws his warrant upon the Trea- 
surer for payment. He is also a member of the Canal 
Board. Such an office is of the highest importance. It 
had been held by the ablest men of the State, including 
Grov. Marcy. Originally it was unimportant, having 
little authority beyond auditing accounts. Every Legis- 
lature added to its duties, until they became more numer- 
ous and diversified than those of any other officer in the 
State, and the Comptroller became, in fact, the principal 
officer, and exercised more power and political influence 
than even the Governor. Gov. Marcy was promoted from 
that office, January 21, 1829, to be one of the three 
judges of the Supreme Court. Upon the office becoming 
thus vacant, on the 27th of January, 1829, while in Con- 
gress, at Washington — he having taken liis seat at the sec- 
ond session, which commenced December 4th, 1829 — and 
without any solicitation whatever on his part, Mr. Wi;IIGHT 
was elected, by the unanimous vote of the democrats in 
the Legislature, to this important office. No higher evi- 



140 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

dence could be furnished of the confidence of liis political 
friends in his ability, sagacity and integrity. He had 
been in public life only five years, in which short period 
he had made a recantation which secured universal confi- 
dence in his fitness for this high ofHce. His appointment 
was an emphatic indorsement of the financial policy pre- 
sented in his canal report while in the Senate two years 
previous. It was a contemptous repudiation and con- 
demnation of charges made by political adversaries of 
"violated pledges." A higher compliment could not 
have been paid him. His financial views were well under- 
stood, and this election was designed as evidence of their 
approval, by the democrats in the Legislature carrying 
out the undoubted wishes of his political friends in the 
State. A more acceptable appointment could not have 
been made. 

Mk. Wbight to Minet Jenison. 

"Albany, 2Uh May, 1830. 

"My Dear Sir. — Your very acceptable letter, of the 17tli, 
was received this morning, and I have yet little time to answer 
it, but am now temporarily at leisure to what I have been since 
the last of March. Never have I found myself so near being 
overpowered with laljor as during my late sale of lands for taxes. 
We are now about through, but it has thrown the ordinary busi- 
ness of the office so far back that our press is yet very great. I 
heard often from you during your illness, and sometimes feared 
that I should never have the pleasure of reading another of your 
letters. I am happy to learn that you are on the gain, and still 
I much fear that you need some one nearer than I am to caution 
you not to get well too fast. You have little constitution and 
must use great care in order to regain your ordinary health. 

" The news from my poor brotlier (Plinney) is of the worst 
kind. A letter received on Friday last tells me that his insanity 
is evidently increasing upon him, and that his liealth is failing, 
aTid his nerves more affected. On his account I have experienced 
feelings and anxieties, during the last five months, of which I 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 141 

have never before known anything. But I think I must give it 
uj). Ikooni to liope is liardly left. 

" I had ]io})e(l to be at Canton during tlie next month, l)ut T 
probably shall not. Indeed, I do not pretend as yet to fix in my 
own "mind the time when I shall be there. The Leo'islature have 
imposed u})on me the duty of investigating the expenditure of 
$100,000 of public money in draining the Cayuga marshes, in the 
county of Cayuga, and in which great abuses are alleged to have 
existed. It will be so late before I can get away, that I shall 
have to go there before I can visit St. Lawrence. 

"Do not give youself any trouble about my little business in 
your hands. Yet I wish you would tell Mr. Alanson Clark, and 
also Mr. Ilolcomb and Day, that the situation of my unfortunate 
bi-otlier is such that it is indispensably necessary for me to gather 
his little property together and to put it wlu'iv it can be had at 
any call to answer liis necessities. They kn«»w it was his money 
I loaned to them, and I shall l)e very deeply disappointed when 
I come there if 1 do not get it. 

" Of })oliti('al news we have very little. The new pai'ty, called 
"tlu! workingmen's," or "Fanny Wright j»arty," is one of tlie 
most desperate of devices of the old eiu'niy. Among those Avho 
really understand it, the design is notiiing l)etter than to intro- 
duce; at once among us the principles, and of course to follow 
them with the practices, of the French revolution. An e(pial dis- 
tribution of [)roj)erty is avowed as the object of those who want 
discretion, hut the great and leading point is now making hy all 
to introduce wliat they call " republiean ecuiality." This they 
propose to effect by a system of laws jiroviding that all children, 
from infancy to nniturity, shall be boarded, clothed, lodged and 
educated at the public expense, and that every child shall have 
just such board, just such clothing, just such lodging and just as 
much education as every other, and no more. Out of the large 
cities this party cannot progress any, if I do not misjudge, and in 
them, I think, the extravagance and absurdity of their notions 
will soon destroy them. In this city, the result of the special 
election held in the second ward, on the eighteenth, has given 
them a ruinous blow. You will have seen the account in The 
Argus. In New York they are already divided into three fac- 



142 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

tioas, with each a newspaper advocating different doctrines as 
the true principles of the party. It is true that Gen. Root has 
devised the notion of riding this hobby, and wants to be Gover- 
nor any way. His late visit to New York has helped very much 
to destroy what little hold he had upon the good feelings of his 
own friends, and, I suppose, to attach him more firmly to the 
working men. It is also true that Bucklin and Hitchcock are 
foremost in the new party and in their abuse of the " regency." 
Root is now at Washington and Bucklin is with him ; for what 
object is unknown to us. Root's associates are entirely composed 
of men like these and the old lobby. Little is to be feared from 
him or them, if our friends in the country keep rational and 
steady. 

" You will have seen the expose in The Argus of Spencer's 
great bugbear. If I do not entirely mistake the moral sense of 
our population, the affair will help Throop materially. Besides 
these subjects, there is nothing new. Anti-masonry is dying 
gradually. I will write again soon. 

" Very sincerely your friend, 

"S. WRIGHT, Je. 

" MiNET Jenison, Esq., Sheriff, etc." 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 143 



Chapter XXXV. 

MR. WllIGHT AS COMPTROLLER. 

On receiving notice of his election to the office of Comp- 
troller, Mr. Wkight resigned his seat in the House of 
Representatives, in the twentieth Congress, and took 
leave of that body and proceeded to Albany, took the 
oath of office and immediately entered upon his new 
duties. Here he found literally a mountain of labor. 
Although familiar with the general financial condition of 
the State, he had but a limited knowledge of the multi- 
farious duties of the Comptrollers office. He immedi- 
ately commenced the task before him. A perfect set of 
the Session LaAvs from 1777 were secured, and every pro- 
vision relating to his office copied therefrom with his own 
hand. This brought all his statute duties before him in 
a small compass, convenient for consultation. The details 
were far more minute than in the Revised Statutes which 
not long after came into use. He was soon master of the 
details as well as the general duties of the office. 

His new duties brought liim into contact with an 
immense number of people, and especially with those 
engaged in canal transportation and other business con- 
nected with or growing out of the canals. With all such 
he was attentive, patient and untiring in his efforts to aid 
those who needed advice and assistance in the presenta- 
tion and management of their business of a meritorious 
character. Few canal boatmen fully understood all the 
requirements of law and practice so as to present every- 
thing right at first. He took unwearied pains to aid all 
such in their business. The blessings invoked upon him 
for such labors were numerous and heartfelt. They all 



144 Life and Tjmes of Silas Wright. 

expected justice from him, and kindness and patience in 
p;)inting- them to the way and means of securing it. It 
was these men and their descen hints and friends that 
came to the rescue at the election in 1844, when he carried 
a ]jolitical weight not his own. 

The statute required the Comptroller to make an annual 
report, at the meeting of the Legislatur •, oicerning the 
previous year's business, and to propose plans for the 
future management and improvement of the finances of 
the State. This duty was performed by communicating, 
on the 21st of January, 1830, a full and clear statement 
of the business of the office during the year 1829, and a 
minute and clear statement of the revenues of the State 
and from what source derived, and the expenses of the 
past and those estimated for the year 1830. 

An account of each of the funds belonging to the State 
from which revenues were derived was given, showing the 
items of which each consisted. 

There were four important funds whose conditions he 
fully described. The General Fund, the School Fund, 
Literature Fund and the Canal Fund. All were in a flour- 
ishing condition except the first, which was substantially 
exhausted. In this report he proposed a plan of supply- 
ing the means necessary to place this fund upon a proper 
footing. The extracts which we give below clearly 
exhibit his views, which were emphatically opposed to the 
debt-contracting system. 

As Comptroller, Mr. Wright inflexibly adhered to the 
financial and canal policy expressed in his report in the 
Senate, on the application of David E. Evans and others, 
in 1827. In this first report, he not only displayed his 
ability as a financial officer, but his peculiar capacity to 
present, in a clear and lucid manner, abstruse and com- 
plicated subjects, and especially those of a financial 
character. 

Like all his predecessors, he manifested a strong solid- 



Life and Times of Silas Wrioht. 145 

tudefor the preservation of the "General Fnncl," mainly 
formed, during the administration of George Clinton, in 
1791, from the sales of lands belonging to the State, 
which included the purchase, of Alexander Macomb, of 
3,635,200 acres, at eightpence per acre While that 
fund was kept intact, taxation for ordinary State pur- 
poses was not necessary. Although the income from the 
canals and auction and salt duties more than equaled 
the interest on tlie canal debt, these were pledged, by the 
Constitution of 1821, for its payment. A deticit in the 
income from the General Fund and all other sources, to 
meet the expenses of the State government, it was shown, 
would undoubtedly occur the next year. Mr. Wright 
had the manly firmness to recommend a tax of one mill on 
the dollar on all the real and personal property in the 
State, to supply the deficiency in the income of the Gene- 
ral Fund, and the bahmce to be employed in reimbursing 
that portion of the capital which had been taken from 
it for various purposes. 

Extracts from Comptroller's Report, dated January 21, 

1830. 

"Tlie CoiiiittrolU'i- Iius bestowed cousidenible retlectioii upon 
tills sul)jeet [si4)i»lying the General Fund without borrowing], and 
the result of his deliberation has been, that a general tax upon 
the lenl and personal i)ropcrty of the State, levied according to 
the same principles of taxation wliich govern tlie assessment and 
taxation of town and county taxes, will be that provision, lie 
is fully aware that to recommend the adoption of this measure 
would be odious, if it had not become an imperative duty. But 
he feels entirely confident that any system of partial taxation, 
intended to produce a revenue for the ordinary support of the 
government in time of peace and of public and private prosperity, 
would be much more odious even in its recommendation, and 
certainly in its execution. Such a system of revenue, too, must 
always be an uncertain dependence, as the objects upon which it 
would act must be sidiject to the fluctuations of trade, or depend- 
10 



146 L/FE AND Times of Silas Wright. 

eut upon tlic tastes and pleasures and pride of certain classes of 
the citizens, in addition to the evasions and frauds. 

" That some measure shoukl be taken by the Legislature to 
meet the claims upon the treasury, without incurring a public 
debt for tlmt purpose, the Comptroller cannot doubt ; and that 
the true interests of the State would be consulted by adopting 
such provisions as would preserve the remainder of the capital of 
the General Fund, and as might tend to restore that fund to an 
ability to meet the now reduced ordinary expenses of govern- 
ment, he can as little doubt. In these opinions he has been fully 
confirmed by an examination of this fund for several years past. 

"A tax of one mill upon the dollar of valuation of. the real 
and personal estate within the State would, in the opinion of the 
Comptroller, not only supply the existing deficiency in the reve- 
nue, and arrest the further decline of this (the general) fund 
after the present year, but will also contribute something to its 
resuscitation. He, therefore, respectfully recommends to the 
Legislature the imposition of such a tax. In doing this, he is but 
repeating the recommendation which was made from this office 
in 1826, and which has been continued in nearly every annual 
report since that time, with the single variation of the amount 
of tax recommended." 

The Legislature had not the courage to carry out this 
recommendation. Tliey conceded tliat it was right and 
just, but they seemed to fear tliat their constituents 
woukl not sustain tliem in doing wliat was riglit and 
ouglit to be done. Mr. Wright entertained no such 
.fears. 

Gov. Throop, in his message, fully indorsed Mr. 
Wright's views. 

The following extracts are from his report of 1831, in 
which he reiterates his opinions in his iirst annual com- 
munication as above given. These did not secure a more 
favorable result at the hands of the Legislature : 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 147 

Extract, from Report, dated 17th January, 1831. 

" Among the duties enjoined by the l:iw lequiring this report 
is that of suggesting phms for the iraprovenaent of the puhlic 
revenues. That the revenues appropriated to and derivable from 
the General Fund require improvement, to answer the objects for 
which tliat fund lias been instituted and hitherto sustained, is 
without question. That collections from the capital of this fund 
cannot be made to answei', for any considerable period, the wants 
of the treasury, is equally clear. The choice, therefore, of the 
plans for improving this branch of the public revenues would 
seem to be confined to two alternatives, viz., that of borrowing 
money, upon the credit of the State, to meet the deficiencies 
which may, from time to time, be found to exist in the treasury ; 
or that of adopting some mode of taxation which shall eventu- 
ally supersede the necessity of other aid to this fund. The 
opinions of the Comptroller upon tliese points, formed upon 
mature deliberation, and after much examination into the history 
and present power of the fund to produce revenue, and the plan 
of improvement recommended by him, and which, in his judg- 
ment, it would be wise to ado[)t, will be found in his last annual 
report to the Legislature. The detail at that time given to sup- 
port his conclusions cannot now require repetition, though the 
facts presented may be interesting to some and are therefore 
respectfully referred to, 

"In the recommendation then made, of imposing a general tax 
upon the real and })ersonal property within the State, to be levied 
and collected upon the same princii)les which govern the assess- 
ment and collection of the ordinary town and county taxes, as a 
mode of supply'ng tlie treasury, and a plan of improving this 
branch of the public revenue far preferable to a system of \)OV- 
rowing money and accumulating a public debt, the fullest 
confidence is still entertained ; and if the Comptroller be not 
mistaken in the belief that one of these alternatives must be 
adopted, lie unhesitatingly recommends the former to the con- 
sideration of the Legislature." 

Mr. Wright adhered to these views in his report made 
in 1832. 



148 Life and Times of Silas W right. 

Mr. Wright served as Comptroller four years, until 
elected a Senator of the United States. Throughout this 
period he adhered to his anti-debt policy, although not 
fully sustained by the Legislature. Notwithstanding the 
combinations which were formed to promote them, he 
never yielded his assent to the construction of the Che- 
nango and other minor canals, at the expense of the 
State, when there was no reasonable prospect that they 
would ever pay their cost, or even pay interest upon it 
and keep themselves in repair. How far the democratic 
party yielded in 1832 to the Chenango pressure, when 
William L. Marcy and John Tracy were elected Governor 
and Lieutenant-Governor by a strong vote from the loca- 
tion of that canal, is not here a material question. But 
it is certain that Mr. Wright never changed his o]Dinions 
on these subjects nor yielded them his support. He lived 
and died opposed to unproductive and useless public 
works, and to the debt-contracting policy which has done 
so much to embarrass the State. The policy advocated 
by him, as State Senator, he sustained as . Comptroller 
and vindicated when Governer. Until practically adopted 
by the Legislature, New York will never be free from an 
onerous public debt, as he often stated to his friends. 
Time confirms the correctness of his expectations. 

Mk, Weight to Minet Jenison. 

"Aj.bany, I5th December, 1830. 

" My Deak Sir. — ' Don't give up the ship.' These were the 
words of the brave Lawrence Avhen lying iipon the deck of his 
vessel, shot down by the balls of the enemy, and just about to 
pass that 'bourne whence no traveler returns.' This answer I 
give you in the words of your own inquiry. This world is one 
of afflictions, wo often say, and it is often true; but still we cling 
to it with a fondness which is too strong an evidence that it also 
affords ns comforts and hopes as well as sorrows. That your cup 
must be almost full is evidently true, and I had hoped that your- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. ^ 149 

self and family would be spared further painful sickness, for the 
present at least. But so seems not to be the direction of events 
in that wise council, the motives and designs of which we can 
neither see nor comprehend. 

" It grieves me much to learn that our friend Baldwin thought 
it wise or just to use his friends in the manner you describe at 
the election; but if he has not seen and will not see that a firm 
and uniform, is better than a captions course, as well in politics 
as in morals; if he will not believe that a decent respect for the 
opinion of others, deliberately and gravely expressed, is better 
than the gratification of the partialities of our own minds; if he 
is not convinced that good faith and uniform support of his 
friends is the best way to induce a return of such favors, then he 
has not had sufficient experience, and time is still necessary to 
carry those convictions home to him. But it does not generally 
recpiire much time, if opportunity occurs. Baldwin has still too 
much faith in the ability of a politician to conciliate his political 
enemies; but if he will look about among all the men he knows, 
and ask himself who they are that stand the strongest with their 
friends and the strongest against their enemies when they come 
before the public as candidates, he will himself answer that they 
are, witliout a single exception, the men who have never, upon 
any occasion or for any cause, wavered in the support — open, firm 
and ac^tive support — of tlieir friends, their principles and their 
party, and who have equally uniformly, equally openly, and 
equally firmly and actively opposed their political enemies. If 
he will look for the men most respected by their political oppo- 
nents, and for the men he most respects as politicians, who ai-e 
opposed to him, he will find them among this class in all cases. 
If these facts and feelings will not decide him to act openly, 
firmly and decidedly with the republican party and its usages in 
all cases, nothing can. 

" My good brother will be with you before you get this, and I 
presume is before this day. I hope he may feel as mitch at home 
as he did on his visit, and that his winter maybe pleasant to him. 
You know the anxiety I feel on his account, and that you cannot 
do me so great a favor as the exercise of your kindness to him. 
I do not want him to study much and by any means confine him- 



150 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

self, but to exercise and keep the mind and body free and health- 
ful. I j)resume he will have some money which he will wish to 
loan, or so dispose of that it will earn him what it should, and he 
may like to take the loan Ames wishes to get. If so, I wish you 
would aid him to get it; and as he may not have the amount, you 
may make it up out of the sum Hill has paid to you, unless in 
your troubles you want to use it; but if you do, make use of it, 
or any part of it you do want. Should my brother want money 
let him have it, as I do not intend he shall spend at all upon his 
own. You need not try to send any part of this money to me; 
but if at any time you should wish to get it out of your hands 
you may loan it, if you can do so where it can certainly be had 
by calling for it, or you may deposit it to my credit in the Bank 
of Ogdensburgh, and take a certificate of deposit in my name 
and send that to me. But I have no want of the money and 
would rather you should keep it, if it does not trouble you. 

"I can find no printer as yet to send you, and doubt whether 
I shall be able to at Wyman's price. If I can find one I shall; 
but should he sell out to our opponents, I think you can have a 
press and printer, perhaps, quite as well. Yet I would rather he 
should not do so, and if he should ; I hojje you will see that the 
balance on my mortgage in your hands is paid or secured. I 
shall write to my brother very soon, but am greatly hurried in 

business. 

" Most truly yours, etc., 

"SILAS WRIGHT, Jr. 
"MiNET Jenison, Esq." 



Life and Tjmes of Silas Weight. 151 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE GEORGIA MISSIONARIES. 

DifRc 111 ties sprang up between the State of Georgia 
and tlie Cherokee Indians, who continued to occupy 
lands in that State claimed by Georgia. The federal 
government had agreed with that State to extinguish the 
Indian title to these lauds. By a treaty with them this 
was accomplished, but the Indians and some others 
denounced it as fraudulent and void, although confirmed 
by the Senate. Her Legislature had extended the laws 
of tlie State over this land, and made it penal for white 
men to reside there under certain circumstances. Mis- 
sionaries had gone among the Indians there in violation 
of these laws. The authorities of the State had caused 
them to be indicted, tried and convicted and imprisoned 
under them. Many Christian people were much excited 
on the subject, and the course^ the State assumed was 
claimed to be wrong and was severely' condemned. This 
question was becoming an element in the elections out of 
Georgia. Wishing to avoid this and to r-ender the mis- 
sionaries a service, Mr. Wukjiit interested himself in 
their behalf. At that time Wilson Lumkin was Governor 
of Georgia. Mr. Wright served in Congress with him 
in 1828, and knew him well. On the 18th of December, 
1832, Mr. WiiiGiiT, together with Azariali Flagg and 
John A. Dix, addressed a letter to Gov. L., recommend- 
ing him to pardon these missionaries. With this request 
he promx^tly complied. Had he not done so, difficulties 
would probably have long continued between the Indians 
and the State, and perhaps serious collisions occurred. 
In this matter Mi'. Wukuit rendered nn important ser- 



152 Life and Thies of Silas Weight. 

vice to the missionaries, Georgia and the Clierokee 
Indians, wliich gave great satisfaction throughout the 
country. 

Mr. Wright to Minbt Jenison. 

« 

" Albany, Uh October, 1831. 

" Mt Dear Sir. — Your letter was received this morning. The 
money you have received from Hill you will please to keep for 
the purpose of meeting the demand to become due to your 
brother. If Boyntoii will take it on the mortgage, you had bet- 
ter pay it now and save the interest ; but if he Avill not, then 
make any use of it you may have occasion for until it is wanted 
for that purpose. The other $100 I shall be prepared to make 
out at the time, as I have little hope Lemuel will make it ; but if, 
without any unpleasant and unprofitable interference, you can 
induce him to make it, I am satisfied you will save him just so 
much ; as, in his present habits, the property from which you 
expect it to come will certainly be squandered if it does not go 
to that object, and it will please me if the debt can be so much 
lessened. If he manifests no signs of change, the family must 
soon make an effort to obtain the charge of the business, or 
nothing will be j^aid, and the property will, at the same time, so 
depreciate as to produce inevitable ruin to them all. I do not 
ask this on my account, and I know the accomplishment, if not 
impossible, will be very difficult, but I suggest it because I 
believe it for their good. 

" I left my brother, or rather he left me, at Middlebury, on 
Monday of last week, and by Saturday last you must have seen 
him at Canton. I dare not trust myself to speak on the subject 
of the four days' meeting, further than to say that if our benevo- 
lent and wise Creator delights in exhibitions of passion of any 
kind in His creatures, I have been mistaken in all my views of 
that Glorious Being; and however contrary has been my conduct, 
I have always designed to cherish and entertain a reverence for 
my God. I hope evil is not designed, though I know that evil 
is produced by these studied efforts to play with the violent and 
dangerous passions of frail mortals; and whether the pretense be 
religion, the abduction of William Morgan, or the electoral law, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 153 

the effect is all the same, though the motive in the operators may 
be very different. 

" In our blessed country, as yet, we have been able to withstand 
these shocks of public passion, but the time has not before been 
when they assailed us- in so many different ways, and with so 
formidable force, as now. Look at the conversion to anti-masonry 
of Mr. Wirt, the man now gravely recommended to us for the 
first office under the government, and say what more confident 
calculator upon the gullibility of free and enlightened men ever 
appeared before the pul)lic and claimed trust and confidence ? 
But I must stop. Neither my time or your patience can suffer 
more. 

" Take care of your health, and write often to me. To-morrow 
you make your nominations, and may a wise Power guide yoii to 
a harmonious and profitable result; for I really fear that, in addi- 
tion to anti-masonry, national republicanism. United States Bank 
and Indian sympathy, you have to number, as an opponent, Finny- 
ism and four-day meetings. I shall expect a letter before you 

get this. 

" In great haste, 

" Most truly your friend, 

"SILAS WRIGHT, Jr. 
"MiNET Jenison, Esq." 



154 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter XXXVII. 

THE CHENANGO AND OTHER LATERAL CANALS. 

The people of the Chenango valley and other places 
early sought the construction of lateral canals, claiming 
they would not only pay interest upon their cost, but at 
no distant day the expense of construction. Surveys 
were ordered and estimates made. Of these, the Che- 
nango was the most important. Those interested in its 
construction combined with others to secure their object. 
They sought by various means to make everything bend 
to their purposes. At the session of 1829, the Legislature 
autliorized its construction, provided the Canal Commis- 
sioners, after survey and estimate, should be of opinion 
that it would not cost over a million of dollars, and that 
for the first ten 3^ears the tolls would be equal to the 
interest of its cost, attendance and rej^airs, all of which 
they were required to report to the next Legislature. On 
the 21st of January, 1830, the Canal Commissioners, in 
their annual report, presented their conclusions on this 
subject. They said they had surveyed, examined and 
estimated, as required, and could not consistently with 
the law commence the work. They were of opinion that 
it would cost more than a million of dollars, and, "in 
regard to its revenue, it would not produce an amount 
of tolls, in connection with the increased tolls on the Erie 
canal, that would be~ equal to the interest of its cost and 
the expense of its repairs and superintendence, or either 
of iliemr This report was long and able, and exhibited 
clearly the facts and reasons upon which their conclusions 
were founded. 

This report was followed V)y one from Mr. Wkigiit, as 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 155 

Comptroller, "inwMcli," says Mr. Hammond, "in Ms 
own masterly, clear and convincing manner, with wliicli 
the pnblic are now well acquainted, he e^shibited the 
condition of the funds of the State, and proved that the 
State ought not to incur any additional expenditures, 
without, at the same time, providing the means of defray- 
ing such, expenses." 

Although Mr. Wright's canal and financial policy had 
received the approval of the people of the State, and 
these reports had demonstrated the impolicy of con- 
structing the Chenango and like canals, their supporters 
were not detered from pressing their applications. Mr. 
Francis Granger was a zealous supi)orter of these mea- 
sures. The valley of the Chenango was democratic. If 
the democrats there could be induced to withhold their 
votes from the democratic candidates and cast them for 
the opposing ticket, their adversaries might triumpli. 
In 1832 Mr. Granger became the anti-raasonic candidate 
for Governor, aud his previous support of the Chenango 
and other lateral canals was mainly relied upon for suc- 
cess. The democrats nominated AVilliam L. Marcy, of 
Albany, for Governor — then a United States Senator — 
and John Tracy, of Chenango, for Lieutenant-Governor. 
The nomination of Mr. Tracy seemed to satisfy the elec- 
tors of this part of the State that if the democratic State 
ticket prevailed their local interests would not be ignored. 
Both were elected and a majority of the Legislature were 
democratic. The pressure of these canal interests, when 
combined, was too strong to be resisted by those who 
adhered to Mr. Wright's policy, and, in process of time, 
these several lateral canals were constructed at the 
expense of the State. They have proved less productive 
than the commissioners or Mr. Wright expected, and 
are a constant drain upon the treasury of the State, as 
they anticipated. 



156 Life and Times op Silas Wbight. 



Chapter XXXVIII. 

RE-ELECTED COMPTROLLER. 

Before tlie expiration of his first term of three years, 
as Comptroller, Mr. Wkigiit was nominated, by a demo- 
cratic legislative caucus, for re election. Some feeble 
attempt was made by those whose measures he con- 
sidered it his duty to oppose, to defeat his nomination. 
But his acknowledged abilities and his conceded fitness 
for the station prevented the effort becoming successful, or 
even formidable. Those of his political friends who had 
urged the measures in question at first manifested some 
feeling in opposition, but such was the unshaken con- 
fidence reposed in him as a faithful and wise public 
servant, that all serious opposition was waived. He was 
nominated by a very large majority, and elected, by the 
unanimous vote of his political friends in the Legislature, 
on the 6tli day of February, 1832. He was again sworn 
into office and entered upon his duties. His re-election 
was highly gratifying to the democracy in all parts of 
the State. 

He adhered to his opinions of the true financial policy 
which the State ought to pursue with unwavering fidelity. 
They were uniformly presented with great frankness, and 
with such clearness that no one could easily misunder- 
stand them. They were given at length in his annual 
report, made to the Legislature only two days before his 
election to the Senate of the United States. The follow- 
ing extracts show with what tenacity he adhered to prin- 
ciples which he deemed it wise for the State to pursue. 
If the Legislature had adopted and adhered to them, the 
State would not now owe a dollar, and its income would 



Li IE AND Times of Silas Wright. 157 

be equal to the necessary expenses of the State govern- 
ment. 

Extracts from Report of January 2, 1833. 

" Thus it will appear that the whole capital of this (the General 
Fuudj is already expended, with the exception of the above 
balance of $6,810.06; although, from the fact that the credit of 
the State, in the shape of public stock, has been substituted for 
money, time is gained for the payment of the debt, and there is, 
from that cause only, an unexpended capital yet at liberty to 
contribute its income to the wants of the public treasury, 
amounting to $578,310.06. 

"The law makes it the duty of the Comptroller to suggest 
plans for the improvement and management of the public revenues, 
which duty he has, in every previous annual report, attempted 
to discharge; and he is unable to say lie can, at this time, add 
anything to his former suggestions. So far as it has been in his 
power, the true situation of the titiances of the State have been 
fairly and fully exhibited to each Legislature to which he has 
made a re[)ort, and his opinions of the policy to be pursued have 
been frankly expressed. He has never been unaware that the 
recommendation of a tax upon all the citizens and all the 
property of the State for the support of the government was a 
thankless duty ; but he has not believed that the official obliga- 
tion was less binding because the character of the recommenda- 
tion was unpleasant. On the contrary, he has felt the most firm 
conviction that the intelligence and patriotism of the citizens of 
the State would induce a just appreciation of the motives Avhich 
alone cinild draw forth such a recommendation ; that their just 
abhorrence of a perniiincnt public debt was even stronger than 
tlieir disinclination to be temporarily taxed, and that when they 
should see the one alternative or the other Approaching, they 
would demand the tax and interdict the use of their credit for 
the ordinary expenses of the government. 

" The Comptroller owes it to himself further to say, that his 
pi'evious recommendations of a light tax have been accompanied, 
in his own mind, at least, with the anticipation that the burthen 
upon the citizens would not be severe, and that the duration of 



158 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

any tax would be sliort. He found the capital of the General 
Fund materially i-educed, and sinking rapidly from gradual 
annual consumptions, but still he found that the prominent cause 
of the great reduction of the capital of this fund had been its 
ample contributions to the specific funds ; he found these funds 
in a healthful and flourishing condition ; the School Fund, dis- 
tributing its 1100,000 annually to the common schools, and 
promising, from the vast resources it had drawn from the General 
Fund in the unappropriated lands, to be able to advance upon 
that dividend as rapidly as the greatest good of these most 
interesting establishments would require ; the Literature Fund, 
dispensing its 110,000 annually to the academies of the State, 
and promising, from its improved revenues, a speedy increase to 
that useful bounty ; the Canal Fund, rising in importance, and 
swelling its revenues with a rapidity and certainty surpassing 
the most sanguine calculations of its strongest friends. 

" From the two former funds nothing was to be expected in 
aid of the General Fund, and that they did not require further 
aid from it was a satisfactory conclusion. But the latter, the 
Canal Fund, Avas merely pledged to a specific purpose — to the 
payment of certain amounts, and, that done, was at liberty to 
reimburse the General P\ind its liberal donations, and the long use 
of some of its richest revenues. To this period the Comptroller 
has accustomed himself to look with deep and anxious interest, 
and he had believed that if, by a light tax, the ordinary expenses 
of the government were })aid, until the canal debt, the only debt 
the State then owed, should l)e discharged, the dilapidated capi- 
tal of the General Fund might be effectually repaired by the 
receipt of its contributions to the canals, and be thus put in a 
situation to meet, by its revenues, the ordinary exjDenses of the 
government, without the aid of a tax. This, he believed, might 
be done without materially diminishing that portion of the reve- 
nues from the canals which the Legislature might be disposed to 
apply, when disehai'ged from their present pledge, to the further 
prosecution of similar works in other sections of the State; but 
he did fear that if the entire capital of the General Fund should 
be consumed in defraying the expenses of the government, and 
to postpone the time when a tax must be levied, another and 



Life and Times of Silas Wuight. 159 

similar fund iniglit not be instituted, and that taxation might 
become not only heavy in amount but permanent in duration. 

" The Legislature, however, has pointed out a ditterent policy, 
and that body will dictate the course for the future. Were it 
not made the express duty of the Comptroller to suggest plans 
for the impro\ ement of the public revenues, he W(»uld here leave 
this to})ic; and certainly any suggestions he may make, seeming 
to conflict with the honest judgment of previous Legislatures, 
will be made with all possible i-espect for those independent 
representatives of the people. Unable, however, to a})preciate 
the wisdom of the policy which is thus speedily to consume 
entirely a fund instituted with the institution of the State govern- 
ment and designed for its support, he is compelled to renew his 
former recommendation of a tax sufficient to sup])ort the govern- 
ment, to provide for the payment of the del)t charged upon the 
General Fund, and to prevent from furthei" diminution the 
capital of this fund, until the recei|»t of its dues from the Canal 
Fund shall I'cnder it equal to the demands upon it." 

Tliese views, altlioiigli clear, forcible and unanswera- 
ble, (lid not secure the favorable action which th(4r 
wisdom demanded and sound i)olicy required. Tlie 
Legislature hesitated, talked right and acted wrong. 
The debt-contracting policy was attended with much less 
present responsibility among voters than the more wise 
and honest one of taxation and prompt payment. There 
is little labor in contracting debts, but much in their 
paym(?nt. It is far easier to leave a legacy of debts for 
our children to pay, than to delve and meet our expenses 
as we go along, and leave them unincumbered estates. 
Mr. Wuight' s financial policy was like John Handolph's 
theory of becoming rich, which he said was fully devel- 
oi)ed in foui- monosyllables, "-Pay as you go.'' This is 
as much the best and wisest for States as it is for indivi- 
duals. Thrift and debts are neither relatives nor ordi- 
nary friends. IVIr. Wright personally practiced upon 
his own financial theory throughout life. 



100 Life and Time is of Silas Wkight. 



Chapter XXXIX. 

ELECTED TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

At the election in November, 1832, William L. Marcy, 
then representing the State of New York in the Senate 
of the United States, was elected Governor of the State, 
and soon after resigned his senatorship. This created a 
vacancy to be filled by the Legislature, which met on the 
1st of January, 183:3. Public affairs at Washington had 
assumed an alarming aspect. Nullification had taken 
deep root in South Carolina, and the tree of secession 
had bloomed and seemed about to produce poisonous 
fruits. A harvest of treason was strongly indicated. 
Sympathy, more or less deep, was springing up in other 
southern States. Resistance to the laws of Congress for 
the collection of duties on imports was imminent. The 
(crisis demanded, in the councils of the nation, our wisest 
and most patriotic statesmen to consider and act upon 
it. Although then comparatively a young man, all eyes 
were turned to Mr. Wkight, as the most suitable person 
to fill the vacant seat in the Senate. Although the friends 
of the Chenango bill, against which he had, in substance, 
reported, did not favor it, he was nominated, and, with- 
out any agency whatever of his own, appointed by a 
large majority on the 4th of January, 1833. 

He resigned the office of Comptroller and immediately 
proceeded to Washington, and, on the 14th of January, 
1833, took his seat in the Senate, with Charles E. Dudley 
for a colleague. This brought two of the celebrated 
"seventeen" State Senators of 1824 together in the 
highest legislative body in the United States. 

Mr. Wright remained in the Senate — he having been 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. XQ\ 

twice re-elected — until the 3()tli of November, 1844, a 
period of nearly twelve years, when he resigned in con- 
sequence of having been elected Governor of New York. 
Henry A. Foster was then appointed, by Gov. Bouck, to 
fill his place, who served until after the meeting of the 
Legislature, which, on the 18th of January, 1845, 
appointed John A. Dix to serve out Mr. Weight's 
unexpired term — to the 3d of March, 1849. Mr. Tall- 
madge also resigned, having been appointed Governor of 
Wisconsin by President Tyler, and on the same day the 
Governor appointed Daniel S. Dickinson in his place, to 
serve until tlie 3d of March, 1845. On the 18th of Janu- 
ary he was elected for a full term of six years, which he 
served out. 

11 



■#» 



1(52 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter XL. 

ENTRANCE INTO SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Mr. Weight entered the Senate and took tlie oath, of 
office on the 14th of January, 1833. The Senate then 
consisted of the following members: John Holmes and 
Peleg Sprague, of Maine, Samuel Bell and Isaac Hill, of 
IN'ew Hamj^shire, Nathaniel Silsbee and Daniel Webster, 
of Massachusetts, Nehemiah R. Knight and Aslier Robins, 
of Rhode Island, Samuel A Foot and Gideon Tomlinson, 
of Connecticut, Samuel Prentiss and Horatio Seymour, 
of Vermont, Charles E. Dudley and Silas Weight, Jr., 
of New York, Mahlon Dickerson and Theodore Freling- 
huysen, of New Jersey, George M. Dallas and William 
Wilkins, of Pennsylvania, John M. Clayton and Arnold 
Naudain, of Delaware, John Tyler and William C. Rives, 
of Virginia, Bedford Brown and Willie P. Manghim, of 
North Carolina, Stephen D. Miller and John C. Calhoun, 
of South Carolina, George M. Troup and John Forsyth, 
of Georgia, George M. Bibb and Henry Clay, of Ken- 
tucky, Hugh L. White and Felix Grundy, of Tennessee, 
Josiali S. Johnston and George A. Waggamon, of Louis- 
iana, William Hendricks and John Tipton, of India-na, 
George Poindexter and John Black, of Mississippi, Elias 
K. Kane and John M. Robinson, of Illinois, William R. 
King and Gabriel Moore, of Alabama, Thomas H. Benton 
and Alexander Bucknor, of Missouri. 

Mr. Weight, then thirty-seven years of age, was the 
youngest man in the Senate. He carried with him a 
reputation which few men acquire at that age. Although 
he fully appreciated, in all their aspects, the condition of 
our public affairs, he did not attempt to lead off in 




SILAS WRIGHT IN THE U. S. SENATE. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 163 

their correction, but chose to follow the action of the 
experienced and venerable men by whom he was sur- 
rounded. His views in relation to the Union and its dan- 
gers were fully presented in letters published at the time 
in the Albany Argus, which we give in the next chapter. 
They attracted more attention than anything which had 
met the jDublic eye. They clearly pointed out the dan- 
gers ahead and the necessity of pursuing a course which 
would avoid them and insure safety to the public. Until 
the appearance of these letters, many at the north were 
inclined to treat the nullification movements in South Caro- 
lina with a degree of levity and as of little public import- 
ance. Although the federal government was in the safest 
possible hands, with Andrew Jackson at its head, Mr. 
Wkight was not for subjecting its strength to one of 
those violent tests which would produce, spread and 
intensify the disunion feeling, if it did not end in actual 
civil war, with all its fearful and fatal consequences. He 
preferred that course of action which would allay, if it 
did not wholly ol)viate, all discontent. Such a course, 
eventually pursued by Congress, was sustained by his 
vote and met the approbation of his constituents and the 
American people. 



164 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter XLl. 

MR. WRIGHT'S LETTERS CONCERNING NULLIFICATION. 

Upon entering the Senate of the United States, Mr. 
Wright availed himself of every opportunity to ascertain 
the real condition of the nnllitication question at the 
south. The information thus obtained he communi- 
cated, in private letters, to Edwin Croswell, then editor 
of the Albany Argus, who published them without the 
signature. The following, from internal evidence, are 
believed to be from him. The only surviving person 
engaged at that time (1833) in the management and 
publication of The Argus is clearly of the opinion 
that Mr. Wright was the author of both. They were 
then, and especially the second one, attributed to him 
by newspapers and the public generally, without dissent 
by him or his friends. 

Letter to the Editor of The Argus, dated Washington 

City, January 16, 1833. 

"De/vR Sir. — The executive message, calling on Congress for 
the means of executing the laws of the Union against South Caro- 
lina nullification, was received to-day, and after some debate was 
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. The message is 
worthy of the man, the occasion and the people. Full, without 
prolixity, clear and distinct, it breathes the purest spirit of 
patriotism and expresses the most ardent devotion to rational 
liberty. 

"With the whole subject before Congress, on that body 
devolves the duty to see that justice is done to the injured — 
that peace and the Union be maintained. Will Congress be 
equal to the emergency ? I fear they will not be able either to 
reduce or equalize the taxes; and, if they cannot rise to their 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 165 

duty, little should be expected of good from any measure they 
may adopt. 

" You may not, but I consider this state of things civil war. 
The arms and munitions are prepared, the men on both sides 
enlisted, and each waits that the other may strike the first blow. 
Such is now the case, and this message asks only certain enact- 
ments. But let no man suppose that this is a season of peace. I 
do not point out the course of the future. That course is too 
evident. If the taxes are not reduced and equalized, there will 
be no peace until, as the French minister said, ' the Russians are 
victorious and order reigns in Warsaw.' 

" One short year since, when the present state of things was 
predicted, all was treated as a ' delusion,' a chimera; and so fast 
have these revolutionary events hurried on, that men suppose we 
are at peace in the midst of battle. And now, when they are 
pointed to the future, that also is too bad to be possible, and 
therefore is denied. Yes, the truth has become too dangerous to 
be uttered, and the man who dares to publish it must be abused 
as if he caused what he is forced to see and cannot prevent. 

"Now, I repeat it, if anything wise or good or safe for the 
republic is done, it must be done by the people." 

The situation of public matters at the south had arrested 
the attention of thoughtful men at the north. A public 
meeting was called at Albany, after the receipt of the 
foregoing letter, to consider them. It was held on the 
24th of January, 1833, two days after its publication. 
At this meeting Chief Justice Savage presided, assisted by 
Benjamin Knower and Jesse Buel as vice-presidents ; 
John Townsend and Rufus H. King were secretaries. 

The Committee on Resolutions consisted of James 
McKown, Tennis Van Vechten, John N". Quackenboss, 
Peter Wendell, f'rancis Bloodgood, Charles R. Webster 
and John S. Van Rensselaer. 

They reported three resolutions ; the first, in a gingerly 
manner, refused to give up the protection provided by 
the tariff law; the second approved Gen. Jackson's 
recent message, condemning nullification and calling 



166 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

upon Congress to provide the means necessary to enforce 
the custom-house hiws tliroughout the United States ; the 
third, in substance, said to our Senators and members in 
Congress "do what you think best on tliis interesting 
subject." There was not in Albany, at the time of this 
meeting, as much harmony of opinion on this subject as 
was expected. The real condition of things at the south, 
and the feelings and wishes of the people in the different 
States, were not well understood prior to the publication 
of Mr. Wright's letter of the twentieth of January, 
when a more harmonious feeling prevailed. 

The Argus of the 28th of January, 1833, contains the 
following editorial notice, and a letter known to have been 
written by Mr. Weight, to show his friends at Albany 
the real state of things at Washington and the south. 

" To show that we do not exaggerate the state of things at 
Washington and in South Carolina, and that the republicans of 
this city have nut acted under erroneous impressions in that 
respect, we venture to subjoin extracts from a letter received 
here on Saturday, from one in whom tlie people of New York 
have confided, and who has never betrayed and never will 
betray their confidence. It was not designed for publication, but 
the times demand that even the private views of public men 
should be brought out if they can be supposed to contribute to 
the general welfare. 



&^ 



" ' Washington, Janncm/ 20, 1833. 

" ' The state of things here is in every sense critical ; though I 
do not by this mean to be understood as saying that immediate 
indications of force, of rebellion, of civil war, or disunion have 
strengthened, since my former letter, in any other manner than 
that we are approaching the time set by South Carolina for nulli- 
fication of the laws of the government, without any evidence of 
an intention to delay her acts or to let them remain passive. 

" ' Some of the soundest of ihe Virginia delegation seem to 
think that Virginia will stand firm against nullification, and that 
they must finally come off from the present troubles better than 



Life axd Times of Silas Wright. 1(37 

indications at present would seem to promise; but they say tliis 
hope is based upon the belief that they shall be able to adjust 
the tarifl" this year, or that such strong indications will be aiiorded 
of a disposition to do it as will enable their true and well-mean- 
ing men to satisfy the people that it will be done, or some- 
thing will be done by the next Congress. Without this, they 
say Virginia will join the south in any measure to effect it, for 
that their people have become as determined on it as South 
Carolina, and only differ by being determined to do it peaceably 
and constitutionally. 

"'Every information to be obtained here shows that Georgia 
is just about in the situation I have described Virginia to be; 
that North Carolina yet stands more firmly than either, but 
entertains deeply the same common feeling upon this subject ; 
and that Alabama and Mississippi are inclining strongly to the 
same feeling; while I am assured that Tennessee, when her 
venerable patriot shall cease to hold the reins of the government, 
if not before, will certainly take the same side of the controversy, 
and with equal feeling. 

" ' The impression of reflecting and judicious men in Virginia 
is, that harmony may be preserved, or at least a dangerous alter 
native avoided, if a proper disposition is manifested in the House 
of Representatives to do something at the present session, eithei 
immediately or prospectively. The same impression is entertained 
as to Georgia and tlie other States by some of their representa- 
tives; but all agree that the existing laws must be so modified 
as to bring the duties to the revenue standard, or that peace and 
quiet cannot be restored, and that disunion and division must 
follow any other course. Wlien I say this, I mean to say that 
it is the judgment pronounced by such men as * * * 
* * of Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina and 
Tennessee delegations. 

" ' You will remark that in this enumeration I have omitted to 
mention the Union men of South Carolina. Upon the main question 
their opinions and feelings are those 1 have described ; but as to 
immediate or jDOstponed action they stand wholly in a different rela- 
tion. They look upon the first of February as the period after 
Avhicli they are to stand by their arms, and after which they are 



168 Life and Times of ^ilas Wright. 

to enjoy the liberty and right of conscience of free citizens of 
this happy republic only by periling their lives for those privi- 
leges. Whether mistaken or not, they honestly expect that 
resistance to the revenue laws will be made ; and that, under the 
legislation proposed by the President in his late message, they 
will be called upon to enforce those laws, and that if so must 
meet force, the first blood must be that of citizens of their 
State taking the lives of each other. They are ready for this 
point, and are fully determined to meet the crisis manfully and 
patriotically ; but they say, with at least some force of reason, for 
what are we thus to put our lives in jeopardy, and to call upon 
our faithful constituents to fall by our sides ? For the enforce- 
ment of laws which we consider as unwise, as impolitic, as 
unjust, and as oppressive as those with whom we are called to 
meet in deadly combat ? The proper remedy against the oppres- 
sion is the only question between us ; and about that Ave shed 
the blood of our neighbors and friends, while our common feeling 
for the common oppression is the same, and we, with them, would 
gladly unite in all constitutional measures to redress. Such 
appeals must reach the feelings and the heart of every man, and 
for that cause may warp the judgment. I, therefore, leave the 
reasoning and feeling of these men out of the question, in giving 
you the facts presented here, as to the great question, and from 
which our opinions and actions are, in a great degree, to be 
taken.' " 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 169 



Chapter XLIL 

NULLIFICATION AND C0MPR(3MISE MEASURES. 

The tariff of 1828 is now conceded to have been more 
a political than revenue measure, and deeply affected the 
then pending presidential election. It served a purpose, 
though highly distasteful to the south, whose Represen- 
tatives and Senators in Congress generally resisted it by 
their speeches and votes. Although somewhat modified 
by the act of 18B2, its leading features remained and 
highly exasperated those upon whose interests it bore 
with a heavy hand, if not by a crushing weight. This 
tariff. legislation, and its injustice, formed the staple of 
the argument used in South Carolina for exerting its 
power to nullify its provisions within the limits of the 
State. The constitutional right to do this was denied by 
Gen. Jackson in a proclamation of December 11, 1832, 
and ill his message of January 16, 1833, in which he was 
sustained, at the time, by the entire north and west, and 
by a large majority of every State, except South Carolina. 
Congress proin2:)tly acted upon the subject at this session, 
at which tv/ o measures came before the Senate bearing 
upon the nullification question raised in South Carolina, 
and which Mr. VViught feared might excite the sympathy 
of other States and involve them in sustaining its action: 
the revenue collection bill, often called the "force bill," 
a measure intended to sustain the majesty and dignity 
of the law, and to cause it to be fully executed, and to 
punish those infringing and resisting it. Mr. Wright 
sustained and voted for this act, which was severely 
denounced at the soutli. Its leading provisions were 
short-lived, and died at the end of the next session of 



170 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Congress, and have never been revived. He took no part 
in the discussions on this bill. 

The other measure, the tariff, was largely discussed. 
In this debate he participated. He proposed amend- 
ments, and sustained some of those presented by others. 
At the time of its passage Mr. Wright briefly assigned 
the reasons why he felt it a duty to vote for it. He 
said: 

" He rose to give, very concisely, the views which he enter- 
tained in regard to this measure. His objections to it were 
strono-, and under any other than existing circumstances would 
perhaps be insurmountable. He thought the reduction too slow 
for the first eiglit years, and vastly too rapid afterwards. Again 
he objected to the inequality of the rule of reduction which had 
been adopted. It will be seen at once that on articles paying 
100 per cent duty, the reduction was dangerously rapid. There 
was uniformity in the rule adopted by the bill as regards its 
operation on existing laws. The first object of the bill was to 
efi'ect a compromise between the conflicting views of the friends 
and opponents of protection. It purports to extend relief to 
southern interests, and yet it enhances the duty on one of the 
most material articles of southern consumption — negro cloths. 
Again, while it increases this duty it imposes no corresponding 
duty on the raw material from which the fabric is made. 

"Another objection arose from his mature conviction that the 
principle of home valuation was absurd, impracticable and of 
very imequal operation. The reduction on some articles of prime 
necessity — iron, for example — was so great and so rapid that he 
was perfectly satisfied that it would stop all further production 
before tlie expiration of eight years. The principle of discrimi- 
nation was one of the points introduced into the discussion, and 
as to this, he would say that the bill did not recognize, after a 
limited period, the power of Congress to afford protection by 
discriminating duties. It provides protection for a certain limited 
time, but does not ultimately recognize the principle of protection. 
The bill proposes ultimately to reduce all articles which pay 
duty to the same rate of duty. This principle of revenue was 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 171 

entirely unknown to our laws, and, in his opinion, was an unwar- 
rantable innovation. Gentlemen advocating the principle and 
policy of free trade admit the power of Congress to lay and collect 
such duties as are necessary for the purposes of revenue; and to 
that extent they will incidentally afford protection to manufac- 
tures. He would, upon all occasions, contend that no more 
money should be raised from duties on imports than the govern- 
ment needs, and tliis principle he wished now to state in plain 
terms. He adverted to the proceedings of the free-trade con- 
vention, to show that, by a large majority (120 to 7), they recog- 
nized the constitutional power of Congress to afford incidental 
protection to domestic manufactures. They expressly agreed 
that the principle of discrimination was in consonance with the 
Constitution. 

" Still another objection he had to the bill. It proposed on 
its face, and, as he thought, directly, to restrict the action of 
our successors. We had no power, he contended, to bind our 
successors. We might legislate prospectively, and a future 
Congress could stop the course of this prospective legislation. 
He had, however, no alternative but to vote for tlie bill, with all 
its defects, because it contained some provisions which the state 
of the country rendered indispensably necessary. 

"Tliis brought him to the consideration of the reasons which 
would induce him to vote for the bill. Upon what circum- 
stances, Mr. President, are we called upon to vote for a bill thus 
imperfect? Is the occasion one of ordinary character, and one 
which can be lightly regarded ? He might render himself obnox- 
ious to the charge of legislating under the influence of fear. 
But are there considerations of a proper nature which operate \n 
favor of this measure ? What are they ? There is, in some parts 
of the country, a strong and deep expression of discontent at our 
legislation on the subject of the tariff. These discontents, it was 
not to be concealed, had risen to such a height as to threaten the 
peace of the country and the integrity of the Union. The hostile 
attitude assumed by a sister State towards the country had induced 
us to do what we are now bound to do, and a i-efusal to do which 
would have endangered the integrity of the Union. The blow 
was aimed at the fiscal resources of the country — at the purse, 



172 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

which was a troublesome thing to manage, though without it 
the government could not exist. The measui-e proposed would 
restore harmony to the country, and he believed it to be just and 
proper to yield much for the purpose of effecting this object. 
The time was come when the revenue should be reduced, even 
the revenue derived from protected articles. This single measure 
for effecting a reduction was presented to him for his acceptance 
or rejection, and, defective as it was in many respects, he would 
take it as a satisfactory concession to all that portion of the south 
which believed the existing laws to be unjust and oppressive. 

" It was unnecessary to say that the whole country was strongly 
impressed with the necessity of reducing the revenue gradually 
to the wants of the government. It was the details of such a 
measure, as it was the rule by which we should reach the proper 
standard, upon which members of this body and the people gen- 
erally differed. If no better measure than that before us would be 
agreed upon, he should feel it to be his duty to support it. He had 
now given the reasons which would induce him to vote for the 
bill. Tlie principal reason Avas that a sister State of the Union 
was highly exasperated at the course of federal legislation, and 
was on the eve of having recourse to a desperate remedy for 
what she considered as her wrongs. Thinking this measure to 
be necessary for the peace of the country, all its defects sunk 
out of sight." 

After a few remarks by Mr. Bibb and Mr. Clay, and a 
few words from Mr. Wright, the vote was finally taken 
upon the bill, and it passed the Senate by ayes 29, 7iays 
16, and subsequently became a law. Mr. Wright's 
remarks and vote met the warm concurrence of his con- 
stituents, although they were not supported by the vote 
of his colleague, Mr. Dudley, who was also a democrat. 
The vote on this and on the force bill, against which there 
were only seven votes, — Bibb, Calhoun, King, Mangum, 
Miller, Moore, Troup and Tyler, — was not one involving 
party fidelity. Nor was it sectional. Both democrats 
and whigs were divided, as were nortliern and southern 
men. Local interests and feelings, to a very considerable 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 173 

extent, had their effect in occasioning many of the votes. 
But pure patriotism and sincere regard for the integrity 
of the Union controlled otliers, and averted the dangers 
which threatened it. This law was, at the time, called 
the "compromise act." It allayed the irritated and 
excited feelings of the south, and restored peace and 
harmony throughout the Union. 



174 Life and Times of >Silas Weight. 



Chapter. XLIIL 

CASE OF ELI8HA R. POTTER, CLAIMING A SEAT AS SENATOR 

FROM RHODE ISLAND. 

At tlie commencement of the session, in December, 
1^38, two persons — Elislia R. Potter and Aslier Robbins — 
claimed a seat as Senator from Rliode Island — the 
former a democrat, the latter a whig. Mr. Robbins was 
directed to be sworn in by a strict party vote. On the 
second day of the session Mr. Wright offered a resoln- 
tion to refer the claim of Mr. Potter to a seat to a select 
committee. Tlie consideration of the resolution was 
postponed, and on the next day, after being amended so 
as to require the Senate, instead of the Vice-President, 
to appoint the committee, it was adopted. Mr. Weight 
resisted this change in the practice of the Senate, but 
was defeated by a party vote. The Senate appointed a 
committee, consisting of Messrs. Poindexter, Rives, 
Wright, Sprague and Frelinghuysen. The chaiinian 
and two last-named members, making a majority, were 
whigs and opposed to Mr. Potter's claim to a seat. They 
prepared and presented a report, sustaining Mr. Robbins' 
claim. Mr. Rives, having been appointed Minister to 
France, resigned his seat. His opinions harmonized with 
Mr. Wright's on this subject. The right of tlie latter 
to make a minority report, although fiercely resisted, 
was iinally assented to, and he prepared and presented 
one, which was printed. The facts in the case were not 
the subject of much difference. Legal or constitutional 
questions were the matters in controversy. In those 
days the Rhode Island Legislature were elected for only 
half a year, and then gave place to others. Mr. Robbins 



Life axd Times of Silas Wright. 175 

had been a Senator and liis place was about to become 
vacant. The Legislature, a majority of whom were 
whigs, extended the term of their own existence, and 
during that extended term elected Mr, Robbins for six 
years, from the 3d of March, 1833. The next Legislature 
was democratic, and believing that the acts of the pre- 
vious Legislature, under the extension, were nullities, 
pioceeded to elect Mr. Potter to represent the State in 
the Senate. 

The question of power of the State Legislature to 
extend its constitutional term of existence was the only 
one involved of any importance. The majority of tlie 
committee claimed that it had this power, and could and 
had lawfully exercised it. The minoritj^ repoit denied 
the existence of any such power, and insisted that it had 
not been rightfully exercis«'(l. It was conclusive upon 
tli(^ subject. The ability with whicli Mr. Wright argued 
the question presented elevated him in the public estima- 
tion as a logician and constitutional lawyer. 

The conclusions of the nuijority report were adopted 
by the vote of every whig present when it was taken. 
At this day no one of either ])ai-ty would probably 
seriously declare that Mr. Robbins was lawfully entitled 
to a scat in the Senate. At the instance of Mr. Wright 
the Senate ordered that Mr. Potter should be j^aid, like 
other Senators, while awaiting the final action of that 
body. This vote was not, like the other, based upon 
party fix^lings and policy, but upon a prin('iple recognized 
by both Houses of Congress — ^ to ])ay those who present 
prima facie evidence of election, and act in good faith 
in claiming a seat. 



176 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter XLIV. 

REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS FROM THE UNITED STATES 

BANK. 

The Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816, 
and a bill extending its charter passed both Houses of 
Congress in 1832, and was vetoed by President Jackson. 
The revenues of the government had been deposited in it 
at Philadelphia, and in its branches elsewhere, as far as 
practicable. By its charter the Secretary of the Treasury 
had the power to remove them and to make deposits in 
other places. The laws of Congress had provided a Sec- 
retary of the Treasury Department and a Treasurer, but no 
treasury proper. As the bank would soon expire, and 
ought to prepare for that event, Gen. Jackson came to the 
conclusion that further deposits ought not to be made in 
the bank, and those in it should be drawn out as the exi- 
gencies of the government might require. He announced 
his determination to his cabinet on the 22d of September, 
1833. Roger B. Taney, appointed Secretary of the 
Treasury when William J. Duane, who had previously 
held that office, refused to perform this duty, immedi- 
ately set about carrying out the President' s directions. 
The fact of this change in the disposition of the public 
revenues was communicated to Congress by the President 
in his annual message at the commencement of the ses- 
sion, December 2, 1833. But the reasons for it and the 
details of the measure w^ere subsequently presented in a 
report made by the Secretary of the Treasury. This 
change occasioned a violent and prolonged debate in both 
Houses of Congress, as well as caused severe newspaper 
criticisms. Many State Legislatures, and among them 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 177 

that of New York, passed resolutions approving the 
action of the President and Secretary. Others denounced 
the removal as illegal or impolitic. Those passed by 
New York were presented to the Senate by Mr. Weight, 
January 30, 1834. When doing so, he addressed to that 
body the following remarks : 

" Mr. Wright submitted to the Senate resohitions of the State 
of New York, approving of the course of the Secretary of the 
Treasury with regard to the removal of the deposits. Mr. 
W., in presenting the resohitions, addressed the Senate as 
follows: 

" I hold in my hand, Mr. President, and am about to ask leave to 
present to the Senate, certain proceedings of the Legislature of 
my State, in which that body expresses its sentiments in regard 
to the removal (as it is called) of the public moneys from their 
deposit in the Bank of the United States, made by order of the 
Secretary of the Treasury; in regard to the recharter of the 
Bank of the United States, and in regard to the existing pressure 
upon the money market in some portions of the country, with 
its views of the character and causes of that pressure ; and 
in which, also, the Legislature expresses its pleasure as to the 
course which the Representatives of the State, upon this floor, 
shall pursue when called to act upon these questions. 

" In presenting, a few days since, the proceedings of limited 
portions of the people of their respective States upon the same 
subjects, honorable Senators took occasion, no doubt properly, to 
inform the Senate of the number, character and standing, politi- 
cal as well as personal, of those whose sentiments they laid 
before us; to tell us as well who they were, as who they were 
not. I beg the indulgence of the Senate, while, following the 
example set me, I detail some facts in relation to the body whose 
proceedings it has become my duty to present, tending to show 
the extent to which the proceedings themselves claim the respect- 
ful attention of Congress. 

" The whole number of members allowed by the Constitution 
of the State of New York to its Legislature is 128 Members 
of Assembly and 32 Senators. The members of Assembly are 

12 



178 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

apportioned to the fifty-five counties of the State according t© 
their respective popuhition, and the whole territory is divided 
into eight districts for the election of Senators, each district 
having four, and electing one of the four every year. The pro- 
ceedings which I am about to present were passed in the House 
of Assembly by a vote of 118 for, to 9 against, and in the 
Senate by a vote of 23 for, to 5 against them; thus showing the 
very unusual occurrence, that of the 160 members elected by the 
people to that Legislature, 155 were present and acting upon these 
interesting and impoi-tant questions. 

"But, sir, if this unexainpled strength and unanimity of 
expression be entitled to weight, and it surely must be, while 
authentic evidence of public opinion is allowed an influence in 
our deliberations, that weight is greatly enhanced by the peculiar 
circumstances attending the expi'ession. All these members of 
the popular branch of that Legislature, and eight of the thirty- 
two Senators, were elected during the first week in November 
last, one full month after the removal of the deposits, while the 
vote shows that more than thirteen to one of the members of 
Assembly voted for, while but one of the eight Senators thus 
elected voted against, the resolutions. Still, the strength of this 
vote, taken as an expression of public opinion, will be much 
increased by an examination of its territorial distribution. 

" It is well known here, and throughout the country, that the 
extreme western district of the State of New Yoi-k has been 
unhappily, but most severely, agitated, in consequence of an out- 
rage several years since committed against the liberty, and 
probably upon the life, of a citizen. The effects of this outrage 
have been, not only the engendering of the most bitter domestic 
feuds, but the partial establishment of a geographical line of 
separation in feeling between that and the other sections of the 
State. It is, however, a source of high gratification to myself to 
be able to state, as I trust it will be of pleasure to liberal-minded 
men to learn, that this unnatural warfare of feeling is most rap- 
idly subsiding ; that the deep wounds which have been created 
by it, in the social relations of that otherwise highly-favored sec- 
tion of the State, are healing fast, and that the time is not 
distant when the evidence of its existence and effects will entirely 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 179 

disappear. In this section of the State, howcvei*, not an expres- 
sion of complaint, as to the pecuniary pressure, has been heard, 
and from the best advices I believe that, at this moment, its busi- 
ness relations of every description are in a more prosperous and 
easy condition than they have ever before been. Yet to tlie west 
and north-west must we look for every vote against the resolu- 
tions, and to this section alone for eleven out of the fourteen of 
tiiese votes. The remaining three are, with one exception. Sena- 
tors not elected at the election of November last, but in previous 
years, and all are located beyond the reach of the present pres- 
sure — in the agricultural, not in the commercial sections. In 
those portions of the State embracing our great commercial 
emporium (and which I think I may, without arrogance or pre- 
sumption, style the commercial emporium of the United States), 
and the extensive cities of Hudson, Albany, Troy, Schenectady 
and Utica, and an almost endless number of incorporated trad- 
ing towns and villages, all surrounded by a dense, intelligent 
and watchful population, amounting together to at least 1,800,000 
souls, there was not found a single member of the popular branch 
of that Legislature absent from his seat, or not with cheerfulness 
and alacrity recording his name in favor of the resolutions. Of 
the 128 members composing this branch of the Legislature, it is 
worthy of remark that the city of New York alone elects eleven, 
and that every representative from that city, in either branch of 
the State Legislature, responds to the resolutions which I now 
lay before the Senate. 

" Of the members of this Legislature, personally, it is not my 
intention to speak. The situations they hold, and their 2)ublic 
acts, are the legitimate evidence of the ca)>acity and respectability 
of the individuals. It is as the organ, upon this occasion, of this 
deliberative body, representing as they do 2,000,000 of freemen, 
nearly the one-sixth part of the entire population of the Union ; 
a population, too, as commercial — nay, sir, I may say more com- 
mercial — and cmijloying more capital than any other portion of 
the country, and collecting and paying into the national treasury 
full one-third of its whole revenue; a people having as deep a stake, 
pecuniary and otherwise, in the prosperity of this country, and as 
firmly and ardently devoted to its welfare as any other equal por- 



180 J^^FE AND Times of Silas Wright. 

tion of its citizens; it is as the organ of such a body, representing 
such a people, that I submit to the Senate this part of their public 
proceedings — that I ask to place their almost unanimous opinions 
as to the conduct of the President, of the Secretary of the Trea- 
sury, and of the United States Bank, upon your files, by the side 
of similar expressions from the States of Ohio and New Jersey ; 
also by the side of different expressions from portions of the 
people from Boston and New Bedford, in Massachusetts ; of 
Salisbury, in North Carolina, and Newark, in New Jersey, and 
such other expressions of opinion as are, or as may come, before 
the Senate upon the subjects ; and at this interesting crisis in the 
affairs of our common country, I respectfully solicit from the 
Senate that consideration for these proceedings of the Legislature 
of my State which a liberal, just and unprejudiced estimate of 
the views and feelings of any respectable portion of the citizens 
of the country may demand, and no more. 

" Here, sir, I might resume my seat, and I should do so with 
pleasure, were it not that a part of what I have felt to be an 
imperative duty upon this occasion remains to be performed. 

" In presenting the proceedings of a meeting of a portion of 
the town of Boston, the honorable Senator from Massachusetts 
availed himself of the occasion to express his own views as to the 
existence of a public pressure, of its cause, and of the appropriate 
mode of relief. He went further, sir, and called upon all, and 
especially upon those who sustain the administration upon this 
floor, in relation to the change of the deposits, to give their 
views as to the future as well as the present posture of the pecu- 
niary affairs of the country. As an individual, and as one con- 
sidering it one of ray highest duties to sustain the administration 
in this measure, I am ready to respond to the Senator with entire 
frankness ; but in thus accepting his call, I must not be under- 
stood as for one moment entertaining the vain impression that 
opinions and views pronounced by me, here or elsewhere, will 
acquire any importance because they are my opinions and my 
views. I know well, sir, that my name carries not with it author- 
ity anywhere ; but I also know that, so far as I may entertain 
and shall express opinions which are or which shall be found ir? 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 181 

accordance with the enlightened public opinion of this country, 
so far they will be sustained, and no farther. 

" Following, then, Mr. President, the example which has been 
set for me, I shall abstain from a discussion of controverted 
points, so far as that can be done, and enable me to state, unre- 
servedly, my opinions, and to make my views intelligible. 

"First, then, as to the fact of an existing pressure upon the 
money market : I believe that the recent extensive and sudden 
curtailment, by the Bank of the United States, in the facilities 
for credit, which had before been lavished upon the community, 
has caused very considerable embarrassment to those in our com- 
mercial cities, who had extended widely their moneyed opera- 
tions, and who had made themselves dependent upon these 
facilities ; but, at the same time, I believe that these inconvenien- 
ces have been, in an unimportant degree, either directly or con- 
sequentially, extended to other classes of citizens. I therefore 
believe, further, that the extent of the pressure has been greatly 
exaggerated, and that the motives for that exaggeration are to 
be found, primarily, in the belief that the present administration 
may be brought into disfavor with the people, and may be ovci- 
thrown through the agency of the panic which is attempted 1<> 
be gotten up ; and, secondarily, in the hope that the same panic, 
if successfully produced, may subserve the interests of the insti- 
tution by which it has been and is to be raised. 

" Secondly, as to the immediate cause of the pressure, I concur 
fully with the Senator from Massachusetts, that it is an error to 
attribute it to the mere fact of the change of the deposits. The 
reasons he has assigned for that opinion are sufficient. They 
might be amplified and enforced, but it is unnecessary upon the 
present occasion. Past experience, concurring facts, and the 
nature of the transaction, all combine to demonstrate that such a 
change would not necessarily draw after it such a result. I con- 
cur also with the honorable Senator [Mr. Webster] in the position 
that the evil complained of is to be attributed to the change 
which has taken place in the positions which the government, 
the Bank of the United States, and the State banks, have hereto- 
fore occupied relatively toward each other, and to the acts which 
have followed that change. These positions, as at present exist- 



182 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

ing, are pronounced by the honorable Senator' to be false. That 
the attitude which the Bank of the United States has chosen to 
assume towards the government and the State banks is a false 
position, I most cheerfully admit ; but that there has been any- 
thing in the conduct of either the government or the State banks 
to justify or even excuse that attitude, I deny, and hope to have 
an opportunity to attempt to disprove. From the government 
directly no loans could be obtained or were expected, and it was 
well known that the State banks, which have been selected as the 
fiscal agents of the government, had extended their loans many 
millions, and to the utmost limit authorized by the public depo- 
sits in their vaults. It is neither shown nor pretended tliat the 
other State banks have curtailed their loans in consequence of 
the change of the deposits, except when the curtailments by the 
Bank of the United States and its branches have compelled them 
to do so. We have, however, record evidence from itself that 
the Bank of the United States has curtailed its loans, since the 
first day of August last, and up to the first day of December 
last, to the enormous amount of $9,697,000 ; and all this curtail- 
ment has taken place in the entire absence of any revulsion in 
trade, of any scarcity in the country, or any other peculiar cause 
of embarrassment existing or anticipated. We need not, tlien, 
grope in the field of speculation for the cause of the present 
pressure. It stands before us recorded in letters and figures 
which cannot lie, and which leave us -without excuse for misun- 
derstandino- or for afi^ectinaj to misunderstand it. 

" Thirdly, as to the motives for this conduct on the part of the 
bank, I have already said, I deny that a justifiable one is to be 
found either in the conduct of the government or of the State 
banks towards it ; and I repeat the assertion. Whether or not 
this curtailment of its business has been rendered necessary on 
the part of the bank, in consequence of former mismanagement, 
I need not inquire, inasmuch as the bank itself, and all its friends 
and supporters, here and elsewhere, most strenuously deny that 
its present condition furnishes any necessity for increased means. 
I have looked carefully into the instructions originally given by 
the Secretary of the Treasury to the State banks in relation to 
the course to be pursued by them towards the Bank of the 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 183 

United States, and I find there notliing to warrant an apprehen- 
sion that any disposition existed on the part of the government 
to injure the bank, or to embarrass it in the prosecution of its 
lawful business, I have examined, with equal care, the instruc- 
tions eiven in regard to the transfer drafts, and the circumstances 
under which they were to be and were in fact used. And these 
acts of the government, taken in connection with the large 
amount of money still left in the bank, and which, upon a differ- 
ent supposition, would assuredly have been also withdrawn, I 
hold to furnish undeniable evidence that no disposition was 
entertained or manifested on tlie part of the government to 
wrong this institution. The only design evinced was to exercise 
a legal right, reserved by the charter, to change the deposits, 
and to continue an uncompromising, to be sure, but constitutional 
opposition to the renewal of the charter of the bank. Tiiat for 
these constitutional and legal acts it has pleased the bank to 
wreak its vengeance upon the community, I neither allege nor 
believe ; that the State banks have made the slightest hostile 
movement against it, neither is nor can be pretended. What, 
then, is the motive for this rai»id curtailment? I liave not the 
slightest doubt, Mr. President, that, in the language of the reso- 
lutions I hold in my han<l, it is to be found, and found only, in 
an attempt of the bank, 'at a time of general prosperity, ti> pi-o- 
duce pecuniary distress and alai-m, and in exercising its jiower 
with a view to extort a renewal of its charter from the fears of 
the people.' So much for the pressure and the causes of it. 

" T w ill now consider the remedy for the evil which the Senator 
proposes. Leaving the discussion of everything constitutional, 
political and expedient, the Senator, with his usual tact, goes 
directly to the matter in hand ; and with the iitmost confidence 
he tells us that the remedy is not to be found in the restoration 
of the deposits, but in the recharter of the present bank. What- 
ever else may be said of this avowal, it must, at least, be admitted 
that it does credit to the candor of the Senator. For mys -If, I 
thank him, and the country will thank him also. It is time, Mr. 
President, high time, that things should be calle<l by tlicir right 
names in relation to the depending controversy; that the veil 
with whicli it lias hitherto been attempted to disguise the subject 



184 Life and Times of Silas W right. 

should be torn off, and that the people should know what is the 
question which is, in fact, occupying the attention of Congress. 
This being done by the declaration of the Senate, there is reason 
to hope that we may hereafter be, if we have not heretofore 
been, aided by contributions of public sentiment, so far as the 
Senate may think proper to allow influences of that sort to enter 
into its deliberations. And, sir, I venture the prediction, that if 
tlie expressions now upon our iiles, or those which shall hereafter 
be placed there, as evidences of public sentiment, shall be 
examined, it will appear that the good sense and ingenuity of the 
Senator, in devising this remedy, have only placed him upon a level 
with the common opinion of the whole community as to the real 
question in dispute : that every paper favoring the views of 
the opponents of the administration has and Avill, expressly or 
impliedly, recognize the fact that the question before the public 
is ' bank, or no bank,' and that the real issue has that direction — 
not the disposition of the government deposits. A petition for 
recharter is a mere matter of form, which can at any time be 
brought forward. A few days, or even a few hours, are suffi- 
cient for that object ; and we ought not to permit ourselves to 
doubt that such a petition will be forthcoming or not, according 
to the decision of this merely incidental question, now made to 
assume the place and importance of the real issue. 

" But Mr. President, while I highly approve of the open and 
manly ground taken by the Senator from Massachusetts, I differ 
with him toto coelo as to the remedy he proposes. There is no 
inducement which can prevail upon me to vote for the recharter 
of the Bank of the United States. I would oppose this bank 
upon the ground of its flagrant violations of the high trusts con- 
fided to it ; but my objections are of a deeper and graver char- 
acter. I go against this bank, and against any and every bank 
to be incorporated by Congress, whether to be located at Pliila- 
delphia, or New York, or anywhere else within the twenty-four 
independent States which compose this confederacy, upon the 
broad ground, which admits not of compromise, that Congress 
has not the power, by the Constitution, to incorporate such a 
bank. 

" I may be over-sanguine, Mr. President, but I do most firmly 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 185 

believe that, in addition to the invaluable services rendered to 
his country by the President of the United States, he is, under 
Providence, destined still to render her a greater than all, by 
being mainly instrumental in restoring the Constitution of the 
country to what it was intended to be by those who formed it, 
and to what it was understood to be by the people who adopted 
it In relievinsf that sacred instrument from those constructive 
and implied additions under which Congress have claimed the 
right to place beyond the reach of the people, and without 
responsibility, a moneyed power, not merely dangerous to public 
liberty, but of a character so formidable as to set itself in open 
ari-ay against, and to attempt to overrule, the government of the 
country, I believe the high destiny is yet in store for that ven- 
erable man, of disproving the exalted compliment long since 
paid him by the great apostle of republicanism, ' that he had 
already tilled the measure of his country's glory,' and that he is 
yet to accomplish, what neither Thomas Jefferson nor his illus- 
trious successor could accomplish, by adding to the proof which 
he has so largely contributed to afford, that his country is invin- 
cible by arms, the consolatory fact that there is, at least, one 
spot upon earth where written constitutions are rigidly regarded. 
I know, sir, that this work which the President has undertaken, 
and upon the success of which he has, with his usual moral 
courage, staked the hard-earned fruits of a glorious life, is full 
of difficulty. I know well that it will put the fortitude and 
patriotism of his countrymen to the severest test; but I am 
happv also to know that he has, in this instance, as heretofore, 
put himself upon the fortitude and patriotism of a people who 
have never yet failed him, or any man who was himself faithful 
to his county in the hour of peril. 

" Of the course which the State which I have the honor in part 
to represent here, will take in this great contest, it becomes me, 
forming so humble a part of its voice in the councils of the 
nation, and known only by the favors I have received at its 
hands, to speak with great diffidence. In the resolutions I now 
lay before the Senate it has spoken for itself upon most of the 
points involved. As to the others, I feel that my knowledge of 
the character of its people, and of the known sentiments of whole 



186 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

masses of its public men, will justify me in the confident expres- 
sion of an opinion that the State will sustain the executive to the 
utmost in this controversy ; and that I may say to those who are, 
and long have been, desirous to restore the Constitution, in this 
regard, to its true reading, 'now's the day and now's the hour ' 
for its accomplishment. At all events, I have the right to say 
that I will place myself by the side of the President, to the full 
extent of the views I have given, and that I desire to stand or 
fall with my constituents, as they shall determine the result. 

"I have thus responded, and I hope the Senator from Massa- 
chusetts will allow fully, to so much of his appeal. I will go on, 
sii*, and cover the whole ground. He has asked, if you will 
neither recharter the present bank nor establish a new one, what 
will you do ? As an individual, sir, and speaking for myself 
only, I say I will sustain the executive branch of the government, 
by all the legal means in my power, in the effort now making to 
substitute the State banks, instead of the Bank of the United 
States, as the fiscal agents of the government. I believe they are 
fully competent to the object. I am wholly unmoved by the 
alarms which have been sounded, either as to their insecurity or 
influence, or any other danger to be apprehended from their 
employment. I hold the steps so far taken in furtherance of this 
object well warranted by the Constitution and laws of the land, 
and I believe that the honor and best interests of the country 
imperiously require that they should be fully sustained by the 
people, and by their representatives here. 

" That these views are correct, it is not, of course, my inten- 
tion at this time to attempt to show. In some stage of the 
debate upon this great subject I hope to be able, without tres- 
passing upon the superior claims of others, to have that oppor- 
tunity. 

" We have been told, and told emphatically, that things cannot 
remain as they are; that the powers now vested in and exercised 
by the Secretary of the Treasury are too broad, and that legis- 
lative aid is required. If I have not misunderstood the import 
of remarks, it has also been told to us that such aid will be with- 
held. To this I for the present only answer, that things are now, 
in this respect, precisely as they w'ere before the incorporation of 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 187 

the present bank; that the same powei-s which the Secretary of 
the Treasury then had he has still; that by the change of the 
deposits from the Bank of the United States the executive 
department of the government has been restored to tlie control 
over the places for the safe keeping of the public moneys which 
it had by law before these moneys were deposited with that 
institution, and that, all the law formerly existing unaltered, the 
only effect of the provision in the charter of the bank being to 
suspend their operation until the Secretary of the Treasury should 
order and direct that the deposits be made elsewhere than in the 
vaults of that bank. I further state, as my opinion of the law, 
that l)y the act of the Secretary of the Treasury ordering a 
change of the deposits, and l>y that act only, the full power of 
Congress over the whole subject lias ])een restored. 

"If, then, the powers of the secretary are too broad, as the law 
now stands, it is the duty of Congress to restrict them ; while, 
if the powers of the executive branch of the government are 
not now fully adequate to the making and executing of all need- 
ful orders, rules and regulations for the safe-keeping and con- 
venient management of the public moneys, it is equally the dut y 
of Congress to legislate further upon the subject. And whether 
Congress do or do not legislate in either case, is a matter wholly 
between its members and their constituents, for which the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury is in no way responsible. 

"But, Mr. President, while I am prepared to give to this effort 
of the government — to make the State banks our fiscal agents for 
the safe-keeping and convenient disbursement of the public 
moneys — a full su])port and a fair experiment, any effort, (-ome 
from what quarter it may, to return to a hard-money currency, 
so far as that can be done l)y the operations of the federal 
government and consistently with the substantial interests of 
the country, shall receive from me a cordial and sincere support ; 
and no one would more heartily rejoice than myself to meet 
vvith propositions which would render such an effort in any degree 
practicable. 

"Still, we are told by the Senator from Massachusetts that 
things cannot remain as they are ; that unless something which, 
according to his views of tlie subject would afford relief be 



188 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

done, the pressure, the distress and the agitation will continue. 
I have ali-eady stated the source from which, and from which 
alone, in ray judgment, the present pressure proceeds. I have 
stated, also, without reserve, the object which is, in ray opinion, 
intended to be accomplished by it. Of the correctness of my 
conclusions, the Senate and the country must judge. If they 
are, as I believe them to be, well founded, it is undoubtedly in 
the power of the bank to continue the pressure, and consequently 
the agitation of the public mind, to some extent, so long as it 
shall think it to be for its interest, and not incompatible with its 
safety to do so. It is not for me to speak as with a knowledge 
of its intentions in this respect, and the Senator from Massachu- 
setts disclaims all information upon the point. I can, therefore, 
only state my opinion; and it is, that the bank has not entered 
upon this bold measure without the deepest consideration, and 
that it will not abandon it, the design not being accomplished, 
but upon the most stern necessity. 

" Yet, Mr. President, I trust in God that the necessity will 
soon, very soon, be made manifest, by the attitude which the 
nation will assume toward this daring and dangei-ous institution. 
The glorious American Revolution was but resistance to moneyed 
power ; yes, sir, to the exercise of a moneyed power, without the 
consent and beyond the reach of the people of this country. 
To this our fathers opposed a stern and uncompromising resist- 
ance. Appeals were made to their fears. Distress in their 
pecuniary affairs was pictured to them in colors to have deterred 
any but the pure spirit of patriotism and love of liberty which 
led them forward. Then the pictures were not imaginary, but real ; 
the distresses were not fancy, but fact. The country was not then 
strong and rich and prosperous, but weak and poor and disheart- 
ened ; and still their march was onward. They armed themselves 
upon the side of their country, and stood by their government ; 
and when their hard and perilous services were paid in paper, 
worth a fortieth or sixtieth part of its nominal value, the repre- 
sentative of the dollar was the dollar to them, for it gave liberty 
to the people, and freed them from the rule of avarice. And 
have we, their immediate descendants, so soon lost their noble 
spirit ? Are we to fold our arms and obey the dictates of a 



Life axd Times of Silas Weight. 189 

moneyed power, not removed from our soil, and vvielded by 
stronger hands, but taking root among us; a power spoken into 
existence by our breath and dependent upon that breath for life 
and being ? Are our fears, our avarice, our selfish and base passions 
to be appealed to, and to compel us to recreate this power, when 
we are told that the circulation of the country is in its hands — 
that the institutions established by all the independent States of 
the confederacy are subject to its control, and exist only by its 
clemency — when we see it setting itself up against the govern- 
ment and vaunting its power, throwing from its doors our repre- 
sentatives placed at its board, and pronouncing them unskillful, 
ungenteel or incorrigible — nay, Mr. President, when it lays upon 
our tables in this chamber its annunciation to the public, classing 
the President of the United States with counterfeiters and felons, 
and declaring that, as kindred subjects, both should receive like 
treatment at its hands, — I say, sir, are we to be driven by our fears 
to recharter such an institution, with such evidences of its power, 
and of its disposition to use that power, lying before us authen- 
ticated by the bank itself? Are we to do this after the question 
has been referred to the people of the country, fully argued 
before them, and their decision pronounced against the bank, and 
in favor of the President, by a majority such as never before in 
this government marked the result of a contest at the ballot- 
boxes ? 

" Gentlemen talk of revolutions in progress. When this action 
shall take place in tlie American Congress, then, indeed, will a 
revolution have been accomplished — then will your Constitution 
have been yielded up to fear and favor, and your legislation to 
be the sic volo, sicjubeo of a bank. But, Mr. President, I do not 
distress myself with any such forebodings. I know the crisis 
will be trying, and I know, too, that the sj)irit and patriotism of 
the people will be equal to the trial. As I read the indications 
of public opinion, I see clearly that the true question is under- 
stood by the country, and that it is assuming an attitude towards 
the bank which the occasion calls for. Be assured, sir, whatever 
nice distinctions may be drawn here as to the share of influence 
which expressions of the popular will upon such a subject are 
entitled to from us, it is possible for that will to assume a consti- 



190 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

tutional shape which the Senate cannot misunderstand, and, 
understanding, will not unwisely resist. The country, Mr. Presi- 
dent, has approved of the course of the executive in his attempts 
to relieve us from the corrupt and corrupting power and influence 
of a national bank, and it will sustain him in the experiment now 
making to substitute the State institutions for such a fiscal agent. 
I have the fullest confidence in the ultimate and complete success 
of the trial; but should it not prove satisfactory to the country, 
it will then be time enougli to resort to the conceded powers of 
Congress, or to ask from the people what, until every other expe- 
riment be fairly and fully tried, they will never grant, the power 
to establish a national bank." 

The removal of the deposits was long agitated in the 
country and tlie subject of ardent discussion in Congress. 
In the Senate, Mr. Clay took the lead in condemning the 
removal. On the 26th of December, 1833, he offered the 
following resolutions and proceeded to discuss them : 

"1. Eesolved, That, by dismissing the late Secretary of the 
Treasury because he Avould not, contrary to his sense of his own 
duty, remove the money of the United States in deposit witli the 
Bank of the United States and its branches, in conformity with 
the President's opinion, and by appointing his successor to effect 
such removal, which has been done, the President has assumed 
the exercise of a power over the treasury of the United States 
not granted to him by the Constitution and laws, and dangerous 
to the liberties of the people. 

" 2. Eesolved^ That the reasons assigned by the Secretary of the 
Treasury for the removal of the money of the United States 
deposited in the Bank of the United States and its branches, 
communicated to Congress on the third day of December, 1833, 
are unsatisfactory and insuflScient." 

A large number of Senators participated in the debate 
that followed, which was characterized by great ability, 
zeal and warmth, and often with exceeding bitterness. 
Mr. Wright, except in an occasional explanatory remark, 
did not participate. Mr. Clay's attack was ably sup- 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 191 

ported by Messrs. Calhoun, Clayton, Ewing, Southard, 
Webster and others. The action of the administration 
was defended with great force and ability by Messrs. 
Benton, Brown, Forsyth, King, of Alabama, Tallmadge, 
White and others. 

Mr. Clay's resolutions were referred to the Committee 
on Finance, of which Mr. Webster was chairman, who, 
on the 5th of February, made a report of such length 
that it occupied an hour and a half to read it. The com- 
mittee reported Mr. Clay's second resolution. 

On the 28tli of March, 1834, the resolution thus reported 
by the committee was adopted by the following strict 
party vote : 

" Yeas — Messrs. liibb, Black, Culhouii, Clay, Clayton, Ewing, 
Frclinghuysen, Hendricks, Kent, King, of Georgia, Knight, Leigh, 
Mangnm, N aiidain, Foindexter, Porter, Prentiss, Preston, Robbhis, 
Silsbee, Smith, Sonthard, Sprague, Swift, Tonilinson, Tyler, 
Waggaman and Webster — 28. 

" Nays — Messrs. Benton, Brown, Forsyth, Grundy, Hill, Kane, 
King, of Alabama, Linn, McKeaii, Moore, IMorris, Robinson, 
Shepley, Tallmadge, Tipton, White, Wilkins and Wkigmt — 18." 

Mr. Clay then modified his first resolution so that it 
read as follows : 

'■^Resolved, That the President, in the late executive proceed- 
ing in relation to the public reveiuie, has assumed upon himself 
authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, 
but in derogation of both." 

Upon which the same vote was given, except Messrs. 
Hendricks and King (of Georgia) changed and voted in 
the negative, so that it stood twenty- six affirmative and 
twenty negative. 

This session is still distinguished by many as the 
"panic session." The opponents of Gen. Jackson were 
in the majority in the Senate and his supporters had con 
trol in the House. The concentrated money-power of 



192 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

the Bank of the United States, then struggling for a 
recharter, operating upon other banks, and especially 
those selected by the Secretary of the Treasury as depo- 
sitories of tJie public money, and upon the business of 
the country, was confessedly great, and produced distress 
among those dependent upon bank facilities for the easy 
and prosperous management of their business. This 
distress, with much exaggeration, was claimed by the 
friends of the bank as occasioned by the refusal to grant 
a recharter and the assumed removal of the public depo- 
sits. Tins was strenuously denied by the opponents of 
that institution. They claimed that the distress was 
mostly imaginary, or grossly magnified ; that, as far as 
it existed, it was occasioned by the expansions and sud- 
den contractions of the bank and institutions acting 
under its control, or in concert with it ; in a word, that 
it was the result of the labors of politicians struggling 
for the ascendancy and control of the government. Peti- 
tions for the restoration of the deposits and the recharter 
of the bank, and remonstrances against both, were pre- 
sented in Congress, with thousands of names and many 
rods long, without changing a vote in either House of 
Congress, and few, if any, in the country. Soon each 
House contained a majority sustaining Gen. Jackson's 
views, and these questions gave place to those deemed 
equally important and vital to the welfare of the country. 
The bank was soon so far forgotten that its great friend, 
Mr. Webster, spoke of it as an " obsolete idea," and was 
so considered for some thirty years. 

Speech of Mr. Weight, m Executive Session, 
Delivered 27th of February, 1834. 

Under the charter of the Bank of the United States a 
certain portion of the directors were to be appointed by 
the President of the United States, with the consent of 
the Senate, to represent the government's stock, amount- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 19|j 

ing to one- seventh. These directors had reported certain 
of the acts of the majority of their brethren and the 
officers of the bank, which Gen. Jackson and his friends 
loudly condemned. He renominated them to fill their 
own vacancies. The fiiends of the bank opposed their 
confirmation and they were rejected. During the discus- 
sion, Mr. Wright addressed the Senate in the following- 
terms, which he carefully reported with his own hand. 
The debates, being in secret session, have never been 
reported and published. This remarkable effort of the 
young Senator, which accidentally came into the hands 
of the author since Mr. Weight's death, gives all that 
can now be ascertained of that great debate. It is a 
valuable chapter of the history of those times. 

The Senate being in executive session, and the nomina- 
tions by the President of Peter Wager, Henry D. Gilpin, 
John T. Sullivan and Hugh McEklery, as directors of the 
Bank of tlie United States, being under consideration, Mr. 
Wkight said : 

" These nominations liad, on a previous day, been laid over 
upon liis motion ; that his object then was to present to the Senate 
the views which would govern his vote ; that he now proposed 
to perfonn that duty, though he feared it would be done tediously 
to tiie Senate, and he was sure it Avould be so to himself. 

" Before he proceeded, however, with what he considered the 
main argument, as applicable to the question, he would make a 
few preliminary remarks in reference to the individuals who were 
in nomination and in answer to suggestions which had fallen 
from several members of the Senate upon former days when 
these nominations had been under (consideration. Pie believed 
that the Senate had ordered that the question upon each nomina- 
tion should be separately taken ; but if he should be in order he 
proposed, as to their official conduct, to consider them all collec- 
tively, and therefore he would, at present, take the individual 
notice which he had indicated. 

"Mr. Wager stands first upon the list, and his recollection was 

13 



194 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

that upon a former day, while all admitted that he was a careful, 
prudent and discreet business man, who had accumulated a for- 
tune by his own exertions, it was objected by the Senator from 
Ohio [Mr. Ewing] that he was not a man of superior intelligence, 
and therefore was not as perfectly qualified for a directorshijD 
in this bank as some men might be. He did not, however, at the 
time, nor did he now, suppose that the Senator intended that 
any objection of this description would justify the Senate in the 
rejection of the nomination. He rather supposed the remark 
thrown out, in the freedom of these debates, to inform the Sen- 
ate fully as to the individual than to influence its action. No 
objection, other than to his ofticial conduct, had met his hearing 
against Mr. Wager, 

" Mr. Gilpin stands next, and all admitted that he was a man 
of the first respectability, of more than ordinary talents, and in 
every way well qualified to perform the duties of the oftice, and 
the only personal objection which had been made to him had 
come from the Senator from Kentucky [Mr, Clay], which 
was that he now held an oftice from the government, and 
that it was wrong in principle to duplicate ofiices. He, Mr. 
W., believed it was true that when Mr. Gilpin was first 
appointed a director of the bank, by the President and Senate, 
he held the oftice of district attorney for the eastern district 
of Pennsylvania, and he believed that he still held the same 
oftice. Yet he could not see the force of this objection, as appli- 
cable to the oftice now about to be conferred. The duties of a 
director of the bank were highly responsible, arduous and unde- 
sirable, and no compensation whatever was allowed for their 
performance, unless it was such a compensation as he hoped no 
director appointed by the government would ever receive, that 
of pecuniary accommodations from the bank. It, therefoi'e, 
appeared to him not only not to be objectionable, but to be 
proper, to devolve these duties upon a person holding a lucrative 
oftice under the government, when that could be done, and the 
services of a competent and faithful director be thus secured. 
This would enable the person appointed to attend to the duties 
without sufiiering from the patronage bestowed upon him, 
and without being compelled to accept of the accommodations 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 195 

of the bank in return for his time and services. Pie conceded 
that the practice of multiplying offices in the same hands, as a 
general rule, was bad ; but he also believed, that like all other 
general rules, there were proj^er exceptions, and that the case 
under consideration was one. He would not, therefore, believe 
that the action of the Senate upon Mr. Gilpin's nomination would 
be influenced by this objection. 

" Mr. Sullivan's name was found next upon the list, and as to 
him undefined personal objections had been made, but he could 
not suppose that gentlemen who made the suggestions either 
intended or expected that suggestions so vague should influence 
the minds of those members of the Senate, who, like himself, were 
wholly and entirely ignorant of the facts upon which the excep- 
tions rested, or what were the accusations alluded to. For himself, 
he could never pei-mit vague and undefined suggestions, unfavor- 
able to the private character of an individual, to influence his 
action there ; that he must have the charges specified, the 
delinquencies fully set out and the proofs exhibited, before he 
could pass sentence of condemnation upon the candidate ])re- 
sented for his vote. That had not been done as to Mr. Sullivan, 
nor (lid any Senator seem willing to do it. lie did not undertake 
to say that the objections were not sufficient to govern the action 
of those who knew the facts, had seen and examined the proofs 
and applied them to the charges; but he did say that they would 
not ask tliat he should be thus influenced, while he was in perfect 
ignorance both as to the charges and the proofs. So far from it, 
he liad, since the suggestions were made, entered into some 
inquiry among the acquaintances of this candidate, and lie could 
not find any one wlio would admit his character to be bad. He 
had found one, an honorable member of the House of Represen- 
tatives, who had authorized him to say that Mr. Sullivan had 
been elected by the people of Fhiladel])hia a member of the 
common council (he believed it was called) of tlie city, since he 
had held the office of a government director of the bank. In that, 
the place of his residence, such was the evidence as to his char- 
acter and worth. He therefore felt fully authorized to assume 
that the action of the Senate upon the nomination of this indi- 
vidual could not be governed by anything appearing before it of 



196 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright, 

a personal character. Of Mr. McEldery, the remaining director in 
nomination, he had heard nothing from any quarter, other than 
comphiints as to the manner in which he had discharged his 
duties as a director for the last yeai*. 

" He therefore supposed liimself fully authorized to consider 
the position established, that the action of the Senate upon these 
nominations was to be governed solely by its judgment as to the 
official conduct of these gentlemen in the discharge of their 
duties during their former term ; and he felt the more strongly 
assured that he could not be in error in this conclusion, because 
all these individuals had been presented to the Senate one year 
ago, and had met its approbation, and because the Senate had, 
but a few days ago, refused to inquire into the character of these 
candidates. 

" Entertaining these impressions, he would proceed to inquire 
into the official charges upon which the rejection by the Senate 
of the nominations, if made at all, must rest. The first was that 
these directors had mistaken their character and relations and 
duties; that they had considered themselves as officers of the 
government, when, in fact, they were but directors of the bank. 
He would inquire how far these persons were mistaken upon this 
point, and whether the mistake did not lay upon the other side 
altogether. Sir, said he, these directors receive their appoint- 
ment from the President, by and with the advice and consent of 
the Senate, and if we refer to the Constitution we shall see what 
persons can be so appointed. The second clause of the second 
section of article two of the Constitution of the United States, 
giving the powers and duties of the President of the United 
States, says : 'And he shall nominate, and by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate shall appoint, ambassadors, 
other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, 
and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments 
are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall he estab- 
lished by law. But the Congress may, by law, vest the appoint- 
ment of such inferior officers as they think proj)er in the Presi- 
dent alone, in the courts of law or in tlie heads of departments.' 

"Congress, said Mr. W., has by law established the office, but 
the Constitution determines the mode of appointment and the 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 197 

character of the offices. It proves that these directors are ' officers 
of the United States,' for no others can he appointed by the 
President and Senate. But, again, said Mr. W., Congress did 
not consider these 'inferior' officers, whose appointments could 
be properly conferred upon the President alone, or upon the 
heads of departments. It retained the power over their appoint- 
ments in the President and Senate, and thus declared them supe- 
rior officers (I speak only as to the importance and responsibility 
of the offices), and to be appointed as all such officers are 
appointed. Have, then, these gentlemen made a mistake in sup- 
posing that they were ' officers of the United States ?' It Avould 
seem to him they had not, but that they had taken the clear con- 
stitutional view of their positions and relations to the govern- 
ment ; and if they had appeared to feel proud, or even vain of 
their distinctions, gentlemen surely would not impute this to them 
as a crime, for which they should feel the heavy condemnatory 
sentence of that body. They were as much public officers of the 
government as we who act upon their nominations ; nor would 
they be found alone in entertaining a just pride at their eleva- 
tion ; and even if it shall be determined that they have been 
mistaken in this impression as to their true official character, 
there is certainly ground to believe that the mistake was honestly 
made, when it is seen that a large portion of the Senate, after 
careful examination, entertain the firm opinion that they were not 
mistaken. But, sir, said Mr. W., with these views as to the 
offices they held, these directors further supposed that they were, 
equally with the other directors of the bank, charged with the 
safe and careful management of the affairs of the bank generally, 
and that, as 'officers of the United States,' they were charged 
with the interests of the government in that institution 
especially. In this, too, it is said they have been mistaken. 
What is the correct conclusion ? The United States hold 
17,000,000 of the stock of this bank, and during the last year, 
while these individuals have been the government directors, the 
public deposits have frequently amounted to a much larger sum. 
This is an immense interest in a single bank, and were these 
public 'officers of the United States' especially charged with 
its safe-keeping, prudent management and proper expenditure ? 



198 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

For what other purpose are they appointed by the government, 
and for what other purpose are they placed at the board of direc- 
tion of that bank? Will gentlemen tell us that these officers 
are so appointed for the sole purpose of sitting with their col- 
leagues, and giving their votes and action as the inclinations of 
the directors appointed by the stockholders shall dictate ? Sir, 
if that were their only duty, why were not all the directors left 
to be appointed by the individual stockholders of the bank ? 
Where was the utility of making this distinction in the mode of 
appointment of persons who were to act together, and whose 
duties and responsibilities were to be exactly the same ? Is it 
not plain that the government did not intend to embark its large 
interests in this institution without directors aj^pointed by itself 
to overlook and guard those interests ? Sir, but one answer can 
be given to these inquiries. 

" In the discharge of their duties, thus understood, these direc- 
tors have attempted to prevent the expenditure of the money of 
the bank, and especially of that portion of those moneys which 
belonged to the public, for objects which they thought improper. 
Tlie people are interested to the amount of one-fifth in all the 
profits of the bank, and all expenditures from those profits are, 
so far as one-fiftli, expenditures of the money of the people. The 
government directors, therefore, considered it their particular 
duty so far to inquire into these expenditures as to enable them 
to determine the character and propriety of the payments made. 

"Proceeding in these inquiries, they found that a power, in 
extent equal to the Avhole means of the bank, and in practice 
wholly without accountability, had been, by the board of direc- 
tors, placed in the hands of the president of the bank, to expend 
money for printing and other purposes. For proof of this fact 
reference is made to the communication made to the public by 
the bank itself, which communication has been laid upon the 
tables of the Senators. Mr. W. said he read from pages 38 and 
39 of that book, and the language was as follows: 

"On the 30th November, 1830, 

" 'The president submitted to tlie board a copy of an article on Banks 
and Currency, just published in the Araericaa Quarterly Review of tliis city, 
containing a favorable notice of this nistitution, and suggested the expedi- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 199 

ency of making the views of the author more extensivel}' Ijnown to the 
public than they can be by means of the subscription list ; whereupon it 
was, on motion, 

" ' Resolved, That the president be authorized to take such measures in 
regard to the circulation of the contents of the said article, either in the 
whole or in part, as he may deem most for the interest of the bank.' 

"On the 11th of March, 1831, 

" 'The president stated to the board tliat, in consequence of the general 
desire expressed by the directors at one of their meetings of the last year, 
subsequent to the adjournment of Congress, and a verbal understanding 
with the board, measures had been taken by him, in the course of that year, 
for printing numerous copies of the reports of Gen. Smith and Mr. McDuffie, 
on the subject of this bank, and for widely disseminating their contents 
through the United States ; and that he had since, by virtue of the authority 
given him by a resolution of this board, adopted on the 30th day of Novem- 
ber last, caused a large edition of Mr. Gallatin's Essay on Bunks and Cur- 
rency to be published and circulated in like manner, at the expense of the 
bank. He suggested, at the same time, the expediency and propriety of 
extending still more widely a knowledge of the concerns of this institution, 
by means of the republication of other valuable articles, which had issued 
from the daily and periodical press. 

" ' Whereupon, it was, on motion, 

" 'Resolved, That the president is hereby authorized to cause to be pre- 
pared and circulated such documents and papers as may communicate to the 
people inforuvdion in regard to the nature and operuUons of the bank.'' 

"And, finally, on the 16tli of August, 1833, the following reso- 
lution : 

" ' Resolved, That the board have confidence in the wisdom and integrity 
of the president, and in the propriety of the resolutions of the 30th of 
November, 1830, and 11th March, 1831, and entertain a full conviction of 
the necessity of a renewed attention to the objects of the resolutions ; and 
that the president be authorized and requested to continue his exertions for 
the promotion of said objects.' 

" This, sir, said Mr. W., is the authority conferred upon the 
president of the bank, as given to the public by the bank itself. 
No room, therefore, is left to doubt the fact stated by the govern- 
ment directors. They discovered the existence of the two first 
resolutions, in the course of the discharge of their duties as direc- 
tors of the bank, and they also discovered that the president was 
proceeding to expend large sums of money under them. They 



200 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

thought it tlieir duty to remonstrate, and they did remonstrate 
against the expenditures and against the existence of such a 
power in the hands of any officer of the bank. Sir, did they do 
this disrespectfully, or in any manner improperly? They made 
their remonstrances to the board of directors of the bank, at a 
regular meeting, by offering, for the adoption of that board, the 
following proceedings : 

" 'Whereas it appears, by the expense account of the bank for the years 
1831 and 1833, that upwards of $80,000 were expended and charged under 
the liead of stationery and printing, during that period; that a large portion 
of this was paid to the proprietors of newspapers and periodical journals, 
and for the printing, distribution and postage of immense numbers of news- 
papers aud pamphlets ; and tliat about $30,000 were expended, under the 
resolutions of 30th November, 1830, and 11th March, 1831, witliout any 
account of the manner in which or the persons to whom the same were 
disbursed. 

"'And whereas it is expedient and proper that the particulars of an 
expenditure so large and unusual, whicli can now be ascertained only by 
the examination of numerous bills and receipts, should be so stated as to be 
readily submitted to and examined by the board of directors and tlie stock- 
holders. 

'' ' Eesulved, That the cashier furnish to the board, at as early a day as 
possible, a full and particular statement of all these expenditures, designating 
the sums of money paid to each person, tlie quantity and names of the 
documents printed by him, and his charges for the distribution and postage 
of the same ; together with as full a statement as may be of the expenditiu-es 
on orders, under the resolutions of 30th November, 1830, and 11th March, 

1881. 

" ' That he ascertain whether expenditures of the same character have been 
made at any of the ofBces, and, if so, procure similar statements thereof, 
with the authority on whicli they were made. 

'"That the said resolutions be rescinded, and no further expenditures be 
made under the same.' 

"Among other objections coming from the directors who had 
consented to confer this dangerous power upon the president of 
the bank was that of an implied disrespect towards that officer, 
and almost as soon as the proposed proceedings had been read 
a substitute for the whole was offered, in the following form: 

" ' Resolved, That the board have confidence in the wisdom and integrity 
of the president, and iu the propriety of the resolutions of the 30th of 
November, 1830, and 11th of March, 1831, aud entertain a full conviction 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 201 

of the necessity of a renewed attention to tlie object of those resolutions, 
and that the president be authorized aud requested to continue his exertions 
for the promotion of that object.' 

"This substitute being evidently acceptable to the majority 
of the board and about to be adopted, the government directors, 
still desirous to learn the character of the expenditures wliicli 
had been made under the resolutions of iSTovember, 1830, and 
March, 1831, and to put an end to similar expenditures in future, 
and to the existence of such a power in the hands of any single 
officer of the bank, proposed the following in place of the sub- 
stitute, and also in place of the original proceedings offered by 
them : 

" 'Besolmd, That while this board repose entire confidence in the integrity 
of the president, they respectfully request him to cause the particulars of 
the expenditures made under the resolutions of the 30th of November, 1830, 
and nth of March, 1831, to be so stated that the same may be readily sub- 
mitted to and examined by the board of directors aud the stockholders. 

" 'Resolved, That the said resolutions be rescinded, and no further expendi- 
tures made under the same.' 

" These resolutions were promptly rejected; the substitute, con- 
ferring still broader powers upon the president of the bank, and 
urging him to still further and hirger expenditures, was adopted, 
and the original proceedings offered by the government directors 
and asking for a statement of the expenditures which had been 
made, and for a repeal of the resolutions, were thus shut out and 
refused. Here, then, the words of the bank itself show what 
was the official conduct of these candidates, and the Senate and 
the public must judge whether it furnishes cause for their rejec- 
tion when again nominated by the President to those offices. 

" But again, said Mr. W., these directors found that large sums 
of money liad been expended by the president of the bank, under 
these resolutions, and of this they complained. That the fact 
was as they supposed and have stated to the President, I refer, 
for proof, to the communication, before spoken of, made to the 
public 1)y the bank itself. In tliat communication those expendi- 
tures, for the years 1830, 1831, 1832 and 1833, are classified as 
follows: 



202 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 



" 'For printing and circulating reports to Congress: 

1830 $5,085 67 

1831 2,650 97 

1832 4,395 63 

1833 0,000 00 

$12,132 27' 



' ' ' For printing and circulating speeches in Congress, and other miscella- 
neous publications : 

1830 $2,291 47 

1831 19,057 56 

1832 22,183 74 

1833 .-. 2,600 00 



ri t 



$46,132 77 

" This is the statement of the expenditiires under these resolu- 
tions, made by the bank itself, said Mr. W., and I will soon show 
the Senate for what purposes a large portion of the money was 
paid. Another large portion will appear to have been paid upon 
orders from the president of the bank witliout any other voucher, 
and, therefore, even directors of the bank cannot tell to whom 
or for what purpose the expenditures were incurred. The one- 
fifth of all these sums being money of the people, the directors 
appointed by the government considered it their duty to learn 
the character and objects of the payments, that they might know 
whether the public moneys in the bank, and under their imme- 
diate charge, as officers of the government, were properly 
expended, and for proper purposes. They did examine, as far as 
the vouchers and papers on file with the bank would enable them 
to do so; and as to those payments, the objects of whicli were 
not shown by these papers, they respectfully asked from the board 
of directors, as we have just seen, that the proper officers of the 
bank might be directed to make a statement showing the facts. 
In this request they were refused by the board of directors, and 
accompanying that refusal was an enlarged authority to the 
president of the bank to increase these expenditures. 

" The directors allege that their examination satisfied them 
that these expenditures had been made for political objects, and 



Life a^d Tuies of Silas Wright. 203 

for printing matter calculated and designed to influence the elec- 
tions of officers of the government. To sustain themselves in 
the correctness of this conclusion they make the following state- 
ment of the character and objects of these payments, so far as 
those facts were shown from the vouchers on file ; and of the 
amount of those payments, the character and objects of which 
were not shown, but which had been made upon the order of tlie 
president of the bank without vouchers. In their letter to the 
President of tlie United States, of the 19th August, 1833, and 
commencing with the expenditures of the first half of the year 
1831, they say : 

'"Among other sums was one of $7,801, stated to be paid on orders of the 
president, under the resolution of lltli Marcli, 1831, and the orders them- 
selves were the only vouchers of the expenditure which we found on file — 
some of the orders, to tlie amount of about |1,800, stated that the expen- 
diture was for distributing Gen. Smith's and Mr. McDuffie's reports and Mr. 
Gallatin's pamphlet ; but the rest stated generally that it was made under 
the resolution of the 11th of March, 1831. 

" ' There were also numerous biUs and receipts for expenditures to indivi- 
duals, among them of Gales & Seatou, $1,300, for distributing Mr. Galla- 
tin's pamphlet ; of William Frj^, for Garden & Thompson, $1,675.75, for 
5,000 copies of Gen. Smith's and Mr. ^IcDuffie's reports, etc. ; of Jasper 
Harding, $440, for 11,000 extra papers ; of the American Sentinel, $125.74, 
for printing, folding, packing and postages of 3,000 extras ; of William Fry, 
$1,830.27, for upwards of 50,000 copies of the National Gazette and supple- 
ments, containing addresses to members of the State Legislatures, review 
of Mr. Benton's speech, abstracts of Mr. Gallatin's article from the Ameri- 
can Quarterly Review, and editorial article on the project of a treasury 
bank ; of James Wilson, $1,447.75, for 25,000 copies of the reports of Mr. 
McDuffie and Mr. Smith, and for 25,000 copies of the address to members 
of the State Legislatures, agreeablj- to order, and letters from John Sergeant, 
Esq. ; and of Carey & Lea, $2,850, for 10,000 copies of Gallatin on banking, 
and 2,000 copies of Professor Tucker's article. 

" ' During the second half year of 1831, the item of stationery and printing- 
was $13,224.87, of which $5,010 were paid on orders of the president, and 
stated generally to be under the resolution of 11th of March, 1831, and other 
sums were paid to individuals, as in the previous accounts, for printing and 
distributing documents. 

" 'During the first half year of 1833, the item of stationery and printing- 
was $12,134.16, of which $2,150 are stated to have been paid on orders of 
the president, under the resolution of 11th of March, 1831. There are also 
various individual payments, of which we noticed $106.38 to Hunt, Tardlff 



204 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

& Co., for 1,000 copies of a review of Mr. Benton's speech; $300 for 1,000 
extra copies of tlie Saturday Courier ; $1,176 to Gales & Seaton, for 20,000 
copies of "a pamphlet concerning the bank," and 6,000 copies of the 
minority report relative to the bank ; and $1,800 to Matthew St. Clair 
Clarke, for " 300 copies of Clarke & Hall's bank book." 

" 'During the last half year of 1832, the item of stationery and priming 
rose to $26,543.72, of which $6,350 are stated to have been paid on orders 
of the president, under the resolution of 11th March, 1831. Among the 
specified charges we observe $821.78 to Jasper Harding, for printing a review 
of the veto ; $1,371.04 to E. Olmstead, for 4,000 copies of Mr. Ewing's 
speech, bank documents and review of the veto ; $4,106.13 to William 
Fry, for 63,000 copies of Mr. Webster's speech, Mr. Adams's and Mr. 
McDuffle's reports, and the majority and minority reports ; $295 for 14,000 
extras of the "Protector," containing bank documents; $2,583.50 to Mr, 
Kiddle, for printing and distributing reports, Mr. Webster's speech, etc. ; 
$150.12 to Mr. Finnall, for printing the speeches of Messrs. Clay, Ewing 
and Smith, and Mr. Adams's report; $1,512.75 to Mr. Clarke, for printing 
Mr. Webster's speech and articles on the veto ; and $2,422.65 to Mr. Hale, 
for 52,500 copies of Mr. Webster's speech. There is also a charge of $4,040, 
paid on orders of the president, stating that it is for expenses in measures 
for protecting the bank against a run on the western branches. 

" 'During the first half year of 1833, the item of stationery and printing 
was $9,093.59, of which $2,600 are stated to have been on orders of the 
president, under the resolution of the 11th March, 1831. There is also a 
charge of Messrs Gales & Seaton of $800, for printing the report of the 
Exchange Committee.' 

" Does the Senate require stronger proof that this printing was 
political, and designed to affect the pending presidential election ? 
Look at the extra newspapers, the editions of speeches, and, to 
any one who recollects the history of the last four years, the 
proof is demonstration. ' Articles on the project of a treasury 
bank,' ' pamphlets concerning the bank,' ' reviews of the veto,' 
' reviews of Mr. Benton's speech,' and other similar publications, 
mark, too strongly, the character of this printing to permit a 
doubt to exist in any mind as to the correctness of the opinion 
upon the subject entertained and expressed by the government 
directors. Were they, then, wrong in complaining of these 
expenditures — in asking an account of these, where the objects 
of the payments were not shown by the papers of the bank — in 
proposing to the board of directors to rescind resolutions under 
which the money of the people had been paid for purposes such 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 205 

as those which they name? And are their nominations to be 
rejected for this part of their official conduct ? 

" But, Mr. President, said Mr. W., these gentlemen further com- 
plain that, in the course of the discharge of their official duties as 
directors of the Bank of the United States, they found that a 
large and important portion of the business of the bank was not 
managed by the board of directors, as the affairs of the bank 
are by the charter required to be managed, but by a small com- 
mittee of directors appointed by the president of the bank. 
They further state that this committee was appointed and acted 
in direct violation of the established by-laws of the bank, and 
that upon both grounds they remonstrated against this mode of 
managing the affairs of the bank, as being a violation of the 
charter and of the long-established by-laws. In speaking of the 
proceedings of the board of directors upon this subject, in their 
memorial laid before Congress at its present session, at page 
thirteen of the printed copy from which I read, they state the 
following facts : 

" ' Oiu- remonstrances, however, were not without effect. They led to a 
determination on the part of the majority to give some sanction to tlieir 
course, by adopting new rules and abolishing those long in existence. A 
new set of by-laws was prepared in accordance with the actual practice. 
They were submitted to the board in the month of April last. When tliey 
were under consideration, we requested " that the standmg committees might 
be appointed from the board in rotation " — this was rejected, and the presi- 
dent was authorized himself to select tlie two of most importance, that on 
the offices and that on exchange. We then requested that the powers 
of the Committee on Exchange " might not be extended to the business of 
discounts" — tliis too was rejected. Desirous that, if these powers were 
thus to be exercised by a committee selected by the president, tiie other 
directors might at least be reguhu-ly informed of its proceedings, we then 
requested that they " should lay before the board, at every slated meeting, a 
statement of their proceedings, which should be read before the discounts 
of the day were settled" — this too was rejected. All these being refused, 
we requested that, among the business of the day, the board might have 
submitted and read to it a " report of W\q final proceedings of the commit- 
tee," since the previcms stated meeting — this too was rejected. In a word, 
the system of late years acted upon was formally sanctioned by a majority 
of the board. It is now a portion of its by-laws, as before it was of its 
practice.' 



206 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" These facts are not denied or controverted in the commiini- 
cations coming from the board of directors, nor have they been 
denied here or elsewhere to my knowledge, while, if true, they 
show conclusively a change of the by-laws of the bank to conform 
them to the practice in respect to this committee; and, also, that 
this committee does make discounts and do other important busi- 
ness of the bank, and that its proceedings are not now required 
to be laid before the board of directors. 

"The sxovernment directors further state that all of them have 
been wholly excluded from this committee. I will not trouble 
the Senate with proof of the truth of this assertion, inasmuch as 
it is not only stated by these directors, but is admitted in terms 
by the communication from the bank itself from which I have 
before read. They complained of this fact as putting it out of 
their power to understand the manner in which that portion of 
the business of the bank intrusted to the management of this 
committee was managed, and therefore Avhether the interests of 
the institution, as a whole, and especially the interests of the 
government in it, were in a safe state and properly conducted. 
Has this been their offense, and are they to meet tlie rejection of 
the Senate on account of this [)art of tlieir official conduct? 

" Mr. W. said rumors had reached the President of tlie United 
States of these instances of bad management of the affairs of 
the bank and of this system of improper expenditures, and he, as 
the chief executive officer of the government, and bound officially 
to look to the public interests in every quarter, ha<l written his 
letter of the 14tli April, 1833, to these directors, asking merely 
their personal information, derived in the course of the discharge 
of their official duties, upon the subjects to which his letter 
referred. These gentlemen answered the letter respectfully, and 
gave their personal information upon the matters inquired after. 
This transaction has been denounced as an assumption and usur- 
pation of power on the part of the President, and as dishonorable 
and a violation of duty and trust on the part of the government 
directors. To him, Mr. W. said, either denunciation appeared 
ecpially unjust and unmerited. He would give the plain practi- 
cal view of the transaction. Tlie people are stockholders in the 
bank to the amount of $7,000,000, and depositors to an average 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 207 

amount still greater. The President, as the first ofiicer of the 
government, holding his office from the people, and bound to 
guard their interests, hears rumors of mismanagement in admin- 
istering the affairs of the bank. He writes to the directors 
api^ointed by the government, and responsible to it, for the facts. 
They give them, so far as they are within their knowledge, 
derived from the discharge of their official duties as directors of 
the bank. They tell the truth, and not a fact stated by them is 
contradicted by the bank itself. Does this view of the case 
justify the denunciations we have heard ? Sup})ose the President 
had addressed in the same manner the other directors of the 
bank, would it have been called usurpation — an assumption 
of power? Suppose he had addressed the president of the bank, 
who is also a director, would it have been contended that he 
had not a right so to do ? Suppose this information had come 
from that officer of the bank, would he have l»een accusod 
of violation of duty, of breach of trusl, of dishouoral)le con- 
duct? Would it not have been acbnitted by all that he had 
discharged an mii^erative duty, and that the information was such 
as every director of that bank was bound to give to the stock- 
liolder, if he found himself unable to correct these practices and 
check these expenditures by an appeal to the board of directors? 
If such would have been tlie conclusions in the supposed cases, 
liow much more forcible are they Avhen llic transactions are 
between 'officers of the United States,' all charged witli impor- 
tant public interests, and all I'esponsible to the public for the 
faithful discharge of their trusts ! And if the President had a 
right to address any of the <lirectors of the bank for tliis infor- 
mation, how much more clearly had he the right, and how much 
more clearly it was his duty, to a<ldress those Avho were responsi- 
ble to the government and not to the bank for the places they 
held ! If the president of the bank or any of the dii-ectors of 
the bank were bound, as an official dutv, to communicate this 
information to the stockholders, when they found themselves 
unable to check the abuses, how much more strongly was it the 
duty of the government directors to give it to the President of 
the United States, the representative of the people who held one- 
fifth part of the whole stock, and an equal or greater amount of 



208 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

deposits in the bank, when officially demanded ! Are these men, 
then, to be pronounced unworthy by the Senate for this act ? Is this 
the official conduct for which we are called upon to condemn them? 
" These directors, said Mr. W., are further accused of obtaining 
the information they thus communicated to the President by 
practicing secrecy toward their associate directors. Is this accu- 
sation well founded in fact? To answer this question I must 
again trouble the Senate to read from their memorial to Congress. 
In reference to this charge they say : 

'"ItAvould, indeed, be just ground of censure against us, if, under the 
authority of the one, or in executing the other, we had obtained informa- 
tion without ample notice to the majority, or communicated it without 
abundant opportunity allowed them to know, investigate and repel it fcr 
themselves. If they do not venture directly to assert tiiat we did so, they 
attempt to insinuate it. On our parts, we explicitly deny it. We deny the 
truth of any allegation, direct or indirect, which implies want of candor — 
or any neglect of full information given to them of the nature and extent 
of our objections — or any want of the most ample opportunity previonsly 
afforded to examine, and, had it been possible, to refute the charges we 
made. This wo deny, and we appeal to the records of the bank to sustain 
us in the denial. Our examination of the expense account was made, after 
a formal demand by us all, in person, to the president. We demanded it as 
our right, as directors of the bank. We proposed to make it in the public 
room of the directors. We did it in that of the cashier, at the suggestion 
of the president. After we had done so, we brought the whole subject 
formally before the board. Our resolutions on the minutes, show how fully 
we introduced it to their notice. We asked of them, by those resolutions, 
an explanation by their own officer, and under their own direction. We 
did this 0)1 tJie IGth of August. The majority felt itself sufficiently 
acquainted with the whole matter, to express a deliberate opinion upon it 
by their resolution confirming all they had done. They refused to have a 
statement prepared under their own direction, although we informed them 
of the vagueness of the account. In a word, it was evident they would 
neither aid in changing the system against which we remonstrated, nor in 
affording a true account of what luid been done under it. It was o?i the 
IQtJi. of August — after we had thus given them ample notice — after they 
had refused to aid us, give us their own statement, or enter into any inves- 
tigation themselves — that we reported to the President of the United States 
all that they would allow us to ascertain.' 

This is the statement of the facts, as given by the individuals 
accused. Their statement is corroborated by the records of the 
bank, which show that on the IGtli August they laid this whole 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 209 

matter before the board of directors, and, failing to obtain the 
adoption of measures calculated to correct the abuses or to arrest 
the improper expenditures, but, on the contrary, finding their 
efforts for those objects met by a positive direction to continue 
both with 'a renewed attention,' they, on the 19th of the same 
month, as the date of their letter shows, made their communica- 
tion to the President. It is not true in fact, then, said Mr. W., 
that these directors attempted to conceal their doings from their 
associate directors. It is not true in fact that they assumed the 
character, which has been so harshly given to them here, of 
'spies.' Not a single fact stated by them, and which I have 
just read to the Senate, is contradicted by the communication of 
the bank itself ; and surely we are not to find the cause for a 
rejection of the nominations in this erroneous conclusion, drawn 
from an error in our understanding of the facts. 

" So far from having attempted to conceal their acts, these 
directors complain that the books and papers of the bank have 
been concealed from them, while portions of the same papers 
have been held accessible to the editors of newspapers. Their 
language upon this subject is as follows: 

" ' Tlicy deny to directors oi" the board the right to oxamiue its documents 
and report its proceedings to the President of the United States, and yet it 
is notorious that the editors of newspapers under their patronage obtain 
and pubKsh, with no permission of the board known to us, facts in regard 
to its proceedings, accounts and expenditures, which tlie}- admit have been 
obtained Ijy " information in and out of the baidv," and by an inspection of 
the documents it possesses. The irresponsible publication, by an editor of 
a newspaper, of facts favorable to the views of the majority, containing 
statements obtained from the bank without the knowledge of the public 
directors, involves no impropriety — the responsible report of those directors 
to the President of the United States, of pnK'cedlugs and exi)euditures which 
have been brought distinctly to the notice of the board, is an act highly 
culpable, uncandid and unjust! ' 

"This accusation is taken from their memorial now upon tlie 
files of the Senate, aiul its truth, so far as it relates to their being 
denied access to the papers of the bank, is fully sustained by 
facts and transactions stated by them in detail; nor is the charge 
denied by the communication from the bank itself, to which I 
have had so frequent occasion to refer. 
14 



210 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

"It is further charged against these officers that they have 
been assuming; that they have styled themselves 'the repre- 
sentatives of the American people,' and that they are not so 
much censurable for the information they have given as for the 
very exceptionable manner in which they have thought proper 
to give it. These, if I correctly understood the honorable chair- 
man of the Committee on Finance (Mr. Webster), were his views. 
ISTow, sir, said Mr. Wright, I have before given my opinions as to 
the official character and standing and responsibilities of these 
directors. I do not think they are mistaken when they suppose 
they are ' officers of the United States,' I think the Constitution 
gives them that character, and that, in so far as the American peo- 
ple ai'e interested in the Bank of the United States, as stockholders 
and depositors, they are ' the representatives of the American 
people,' because they are officially charged with the guardianship 
and protection of those interests. Their assuming that title, 
therefore, should not be held a criminal assumption, calling upon 
the Senate to disgrace them as citizens or public officers. Their 
communications have been made to the President and to Congress 
in respectful language; nor, Mr. W. said, could he find, in any of 
them, any evidence of a manner so exceptionable as to justify 
him in votina: asrainst their nominations. He could find much in 
all their communications commanding his admiration, as evincing 
a faithfulness and fearlessness in the discharge of the responsible 
duties of a high and unpleasant public trust, and calling strongly 
upon him for his best support. 

" But, as assumption had been charged, might he not be per- 
mitted to refer gentlemen to the other side of tliis controversy. 
They proposed to cut down these directors to sustain those 
chosen by the stockholders, and were those directors wholly clear 
from high and offensive assumptions ? He would refer to a pas- 
sage or two, in their late communication to the public, for an 
answer to the inquiry. Speaking of the conduct of the President 
of the United States, the following language is used : 

" ' But the wrong done to the pecuniary interests of the bank sinks into 
entire insignificance when compared with the deeper injury inflicted on the 
country by this usurpation of all the powers of the government.' 



• Life and Times of Silas Wright. 211 

"And again : 

" 'It, in fact, resolves itself into this, that whenever the laws prescribe 
certain duties to an officer, if that officer, acting under the sanctions of his 
official oath and his private character, refuses to violate that law, the Presi- 
dent of the United States may dismiss him and appoint another ; and if he 
too should prove to be a •' refractory subordinate," to continue his removals 
until he at last discovers, in the descending scale of degradation, some irre- 
sponsible individual fit to be the tool of his designs. Unhappily, there are 
never wanting men who will think as their superiors wish them to think — 
men who regard more the compensation than the duties of their office — men 
to whom daily bread is sufficient consolation for daily shame.' 

"Now, here, Mr. W. said, to his understanding, were assump- 
tions of no usual or ordinary character ; and if gentlemen were 
prepared to sustain such language, used towards the official acts 
of the chief executive magistrate of the United States, and used 
too by a moneyed incorporation created by the Congress of the 
United States, he was not. Such assumptions should never 
receive countenance from him ; and he felt sure that those who 
could give them countenance would not punish the directors 
appointed by the government because they had considered 
themselves as ' officers of the United States,' and therefore, in 
reference to their official duties, as ' representatives of the 
American people.' 

" Still another accusation, however, was made against these 
directors, and upon which peculiar stress was placed by some 
members of the Senate. It was said that they had made public 
matters of a private nature, not warranted by their situations 
and dishonorable to them as men. What, said Mr. W., are the 
facts? These gentlemen were directors of the Bank of the 
United States. In the course of the discharge of their official 
duties they find that the account of Messrs. Gales & Seaton, 
printers of this city, is o /er-drawn to the amount of $3,314.81; 
an amount, of itself, not sufficiently large to create great alarm, 
but surely of sufficient importance to excite attention and exami- 
nation on Uie part of any prudent and faithful director, and 
especially when it was publicly known that the debtors them- 
selves were in embarrassed circumstances and not resjjonsible. 
They did examine, and at the first step of their examination they 
further find that a note drawn by these parties for |5,000, which 



212 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

had been discounted by the bank, had been due for some days 
and liad not even been protested ; whereby, Mr. W. said, he 
supposed it followed from necessity that the indorser was dis- 
charged from liability. And, upon looking farther, they find 
that, within a few years, the account of these individuals with 
the bank had risen from less than $11,000 to more than $80,000, 
and that the securities for this large debt were irregular, unusual 
and uncertain. Such is a succinct history of the condition of this 
account, as given by these directors in their memorial to Congress; 
and, in view of the facts, a motion was made to the board of 
directors that the account should be referred to a committee of 
seven directors, of Avhom the resident directors appointed by the 
government should constitute three, for the purpose of investiga- 
tion and adjustment. This motion prevailed without opposition, 
and a special committee was appointed. The directors proceed 
to say : ' At the meeting of the board, three days after, the sub- 
ject being before this special committee and unacted on, we were 
surprised to observe, by the books laid on the table, that the 
note for $5,000 had been renewed, hy the Committee on Exchange, 
on the very day the investigation was directed.'' 
" They further say : 

" ' We observed also that the Committee on Exchange had discounted a 
note of the same persons for a further sum of $3,500, on the security of 
their order ou the clerk of the House of Representatives, " for the amount 
which tcoiild be due to them for the second part of Vol. 6 of the Register of 
Debates, say for 500 copies, $2,500, wMn authorized hy the House as hereto- 
forey Ou this order the clerk declined putting any acceptance, as the above 
work had not been subscribed for ; though, as he said, " he did not doubt of 
its being ordered," but he stated that "if the order was lodged with Mr. 
Johnson, his paying clerk, he would pay the moneys when due to the 
proper person." Thej'' had also discounted a draft of the same persons, ou 
H. T. Weightman, for $814.81. The two together made up $3,314.81, the 
amount of the overdraft at the time.' 

" Here, said Mr. W., was an account of a large amount, so 
unusually conditioned as, by the unanimous assent of the board 
of directors, to require its reference to a special committee for 
examination, and upon the very day when an order to that eftect 
was made, this Exchange Committee, of the doings of which the 
government directors have had so much cause to complain, and 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 213 

from wliicli they have been carefully excluded, interpose and 
adjust the account in their own way. And what was that way? 
They first renew a dishonored note for |5,000 upon the dishon- 
ored credit of the same parties. They next discount a note for 
$2,500 of the same drawers, secured, or rather jnirporting to be 
secured, by an order from those drawers upon tlie clerk of tlie 
House of Representatives 'for the amount which toould be due to 
them' '■ vjhen authorized by the House as heretofore,'' and upon 
which order the clerk had indorsed his refusal to accept, not his 
acceptance. An order upon the clerk of the House of Represen- 
tatives for books which might or might not be purchased by 
Congress at a future session, as the pleasure of Congress should 
dictate, was thus held, by this Committee on Exchange, to be 
security for a note for |2,500, drawn by irresponsible parties, and 
to make that note bankable paper. The committee then proceed 
to discount a draft of these same parties, upon a Mr. Weiglitman, 
for a sum sufficient to balance the overdraft of their account, and 
lay their proceedings before the board of directors of the baidc, 
not for the advisement of that board, but mei'ely for their infor- 
mation as to what had been done. The information being pos- 
sessed by the board, the resolution appointing a special committee 
to investigate this account is called up, and, despite the efforts of 
the government directors and the mover of the resolution, is 
wholly rescinded. 

" Such, said Mr. W., is a partial statement of the facts in rela- 
tion to the private account which these directors are accused of 
having improperly and dishonorably made public; and he would 
ask, with entire confidence, was there any other private account 
of which they had spoken ? The answer must be negative. Is, 
then, this such a transaction as is required to be kept private and 
secret from the stockholders of the bank '? So far from it, in his 
judgment, that he considered it the indispensable duty of any 
director of that bank, from whatever source he might have derived 
his appointment, to lay open to the stockholders such an instance 
of gross mismanagement of the affairs of the institution. Was it 
to be tolerated that a mere committee of the directors should thus 
disregard a solemn order of the boai'd, or should be permitted 
to force upon the bank such securities for its money ? And when 



214 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

these things were done and met the sanction of the majority of 
the directors, was it to be contended that the knowledge of the 
transaction was to be kept secret from the stockholders, and from 
the government as much the largest stockholder, under the pre- 
tense that the private accounts of individuals are not to be made 
public ? Very different were his views upon this subject; and he 
could not believe that this transaction could be viewed in any 
other light than as an instance of palpable mismanagement of 
the affairs of the bank, or that the government directors per- 
formed any other than an honest duty in disclosing it to the 
President. 

" It has been said that these dii-ectors made public these facts. 
Is this declaration well founded? They communicated them to 
the President, but I am yet to learn that they had any other 
agency in making them public. The President, and not these 
directors, caused their letters to him to be made public. They, 
therefore, are not to be charged with his act, and it is wrong to 
say that they caused any further publication than by their letter 
to the chief executive officer of the government. Are they, for 
this, to receive the heavy condemnatory sentence of the Senate ? 
Are they, for this, to be proclaimed to the world as dishonorable 
men, performing dishonorable actions ? They are not, Mr. Presi- 
dent, to receive this sentence from me. 

"But, Mr. President, said Mr. W., can we mistake the true 
question presented to us? Is it not whether the government 
shall or shall not be represented at the board of directors of that 
bank? Is it not whether the public interests there shall be 
guarded by directors appointed by the government, or whether 
those great interests shall be subject to the caprices of the indi- 
vidual stockholders, or of those they may choose to permit to 
represent them there ? The honorable Senator from Massachusetts 
(Mr. Webster) has told us that he opposed the charter of this 
bank, and that he did so mainly upon the ground that all the 
directors ought to be appointed by the stockholders in the same 
manner; that the government ought not to be represented by 
directors at the board; that it ought not to have this control over 
the management of the affairs of the institution. He has also 
told us that himself and several of his associates used their best 



Ltfe and Times of Silas Wright. 215 

efforts to expunge this feature from the charter, and, not being suc- 
cessful, voted against it. Why, sir, did they not succeed ? Most 
certainly because that Congress considered this representation in 
and control over, the institution important to the government, 
and would not grant the charter without it. Had not, then, this 
provision for the appointment of directors on the part of the 
government been retained, the bank itself would never have 
existed. The honorable gentleman, however, now contends that 
the duties of these directors are in no I'espect different from the 
duties of the remaining twenty directors appointed by the indi- 
vidual stockholders; that they are virtually merged in this 
greater number, and that their views and feelings upon all occa- 
sions should be the same, and, if they are not, that they should 
be surrendered to the views and feelings of those responsible to 
a different body. Sir, if these were the Senator's opinions when 
the charter was upon its passage, why did he oppose it because 
of this provision ? If this was not to bring into the direction a 
different representative interest, acting under different responsi- 
bilities, and to be measurably governed by different views, why 
was it so objectionable ? It cannot be disguised, sir, that such 
must have been the expectation and intention of the Congress 
which granted this charter; that they designed that these direc- 
tors should consider themselves the more immediate representa- 
tives of the government in all its various interests in and rela- 
tions to the bank; and that for that reason, and for that reason 
alone, tlie provision was persisted in by those who desired this 
control and watchfulness, and opposed by those who did not 
wish it. Nor can it be disguised that by rejecting these nomina- 
tions, for the causes for which they are to be rejected, we are, in 
our executive action, virtually legislating this provision out of 
the charter — making it what its framers did not design to make 
it, and releasing that safeguard over the public interests invested 
in the bank which they rigidly persisted in retaining. Who, 
Mr. President, will accept these offices, to perform fearlessly and 
faithfully the duties appertaining to them, if these men, wlio 
have so performed tliose duties, are to be cut down by the 
Senate? What honorable man will take a responsible office, 
without compensation, when he learns that a laborious and effi- 



216 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

cient discharge of its duties is to bring down upon his head the 
heavy censures of this body? None, sir; and you may as well 
not go through tlie forms of an appointment. 

" One word, Mr. President, in reply to the remarks made, when 
these nominations were last under consideration, by the honora- 
ble Senator from Virginia (Mr. Tyler), The Senator is a member 
of the Committee on Finance, and, upon the report of that com- 
mittee being made, he told us he had come to the conclusion to 
vote for a portion of the candidates, and to vote against others; 
but i;pon the occasion referred to he read to the Senate an article 
from a morning paper, purporting to give the transactions of 
certain individuals with the bank; said he would presume that 
the informants of the publisher were these directors, and that 
unless he could be certainly assured that his suspicions were 
wrong, he should vote against them all. Sir, said Mr. W., it 
appears to me, if the honorable gentleman will review the facts, 
he will discharge these individuals from that responsibility. The 
paper jjurported to give minute facts as to particular transactions 
with the bank. The individuals named, and wlio must know 
the truth upon the subject, are here in their seats in the Senate. 
Tliey assure us that every material allegation in the publication 
was wholly false and without foundation. Does it, then, afford 
any ground whatever for the presumption that the article was 
written upon information derived from these directors ? Is it not 
a necessary conclusion that they would have given correct infor- 
mation if they had given any ? Is it fair or reasonable to sup- 
pose that these officers would have violated their duty by 
attempting to give information of this description to the pub- 
lisher of a newspaper, and would in the same act have practiced 
a fraud upon that publisher by giving him information which 
was false and without foundation ? It did, Mr. W. said, appear 
to him that this was a presumption too violent to justify the 
honorable Senator in condemning these candidates unheard, and 
he could not but believe that, if the gentleman would reconsider, 
he would return to his first conclusion to vote for, at least, some 
of the persons nominated. 

" He would ask the further indulgence of the Senate while he 
gave a moment's attention to the injurious remarks which were 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 217 

made, at a late day, by the honorable Senator from Vermont (Mr. 
Prentis), which should complete the discharge of his present 
duty. That gentleman had told the Senate that he should vote 
against the confirmation of these nominations, not in consequence 
of any objections he had heard urged against their cliaracters, or 
qualifications to discharge their duties, but on account of their 
hostility to the bank. This conclusion was plausible, but was it 
supported by the facts ? Is it shown tliat these directors are 
hostile to the bank? Mr. W. said he knew no evidence of the 
fact. They are hostile to the mode in which the bank is at pre- 
sent managed. They have complained of abuses in that manage- 
ment, and have tried to correct them. They have failed to 
accomplish that, and have laid the abuses before Congress. Is 
this hostility to the Ijank ? Is it not rather the best of friendship 
to it, and are not those who are to be sustained by such a deci- 
sion of the Senate the real enemies of the bank, as being the 
authors of the abuses and bad management ? This, Mr. W. said, 
appeared to him the true conclusion, and that the gentleman 
would, by his vote against these nominations, censure the real 
friends of the bank for the benefit of those who had done most 
to injure it. lie begged the honorable Senator, therefore, to 
re-examine his positions and see if the facts warranted the con- 
clusion to which he had come. 

" in conclusion, Mr. W. said he had bestowed his best attention 
upon the conduct of these directors as exhibited in the docu- 
ments before the Senate; he liad listened attentively to all tliat 
had l)een said in debate, and he had availed himself of all other 
information within his reach, and lie now unhesitatingly gave to 
the Senate his conviction that the nominations of all ought to be 
comfirmed. lie should most cheerfully give to each candidate 
his vote." 

Mr. Wright to Minet Jenison. 

" WasiiingtoiX, 24^A J/«y, 1834. 
" My Dear Sir. — Your letter of the 26th of April came regu- 
larly to me, and I was exceedingly happy to be informed that 
your health was improving, and that you had not relinquished 
your hope of the western journey, provided the state of your 



218 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

health and the pressure should permit us to indulge oui-selves in 
the trip. I yet hope we may take it, and that the enjoyment 
may be in proportion to my anticipations. Still, it is right I 
should say that I am in trouble. Four weeks ago I confidently 
believed we should adjourn on the thirty-first of this month. 
Two weeks ago I surrendered that hope and moved up to the 
sixteenth of June. Now we have more talk of the second of 
July than of any other time, and it is too plain that many of our 
friends in the House are willing to fix the time at that or even a 
later day. They make a great noise about their business and 
their anxiety to adjourn, but when the business is within their 
power they do not do it. I know of but one perfectly honest 
man in the delegation who opposes an adjournment, and he says 
very frankly that he does not want to go away until all the busi- 
ness is done ; that he has eight dollars per day, and hires a man 
at home for eight dollars a month that will do a ' plaguy sight 
more than he should, if at home.' * The old man's feelings actu- 
ate many, but they do not confess it. I think, however, the 
second of July is the latest day, and the sixteenth of June the 
earliest day, and that we shall get away sometime between those 
dates. I hardly dare write to my wife upon the subject. I had 
consented so long to the first of June, that she had settled her 
feelings upon that time very strongly, and I have not had time 
to get a letter since. I was compelled to stretch out the time to 
the sixteenth of June. She has behaved most remarkably well 
as yet, but you know there is a saying that ' hope deferred 
maketh the heart sick,' and I insist upon it she has a right to 
manifest a little impatience, even at this first extension. If, 
then, before she has time to write to me her feelings upon that, 
I tell her that another extension of half a month is to be made, I 
fear she may think that I do not want to get home. I do not, 
however, apprehend any serious difficulty, for I think she knows 
my feelings too well to believe that I stay here for pleasure, or 
that I would not A^ote to go home at any moment when I believed 
my public duty would permit me to do so. You are advised 

* Isaac B. Van Houten. He believed Congress was bound to finish its 
calendar of business before it could lawfully adjourn. He was an honest 
and good man, of great simplicity of character. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 219 

that she meets me in Vermont, and my visit and business there 
will detain me some eight or ten days. It will, therefore, be 
probably about three weeks after we adjourn before you will see 
me at Canton. Hence, I fear I may be compelled to delay the 
journey to a later period in the season than you would wish. If 
you think so, write me on the subject. 

" I have a letter before me from Doty, proposing the call of a 
mass meeting of the republicans of the county at such time as 
will enable Gillet* and myself to be there. I have thought of it, 
and am inclined to think rather favorably of the measure. We 
are to have a dreadful battle next fall throughout the country, 
and our congressional district is one of those which the opposi- 
tion confidently hope to change. Their present proceedings show 
that they are early in the field, which is well. Let them take 
their ground and show their hand, and then we can follow them 
better. I have, however, come to the clear conclusion, so far as 
our county is concerned, that Gillet should be the candidate, and 
the only one talked of or presented. I have strong reasons to 
believe that Franklin will consent to waive its right for this 
year if Gillet is the man; and, as he has behaved most splendidly 
here during the session so far, and I believe he has supplied the 
district most unusually with documents, I hope to learn that he 
has gained strength. I am most happy, also, to be able to say to 
you that economy, so far as I can learn, has marked his whole 
living and expenditure during the session, with the single excep- 
tion (if exception it ought to be called) of the purchase of docu- 
ments to send home. Now, in this conclusion as to his renomi- 
nation I may be all wrong; and if I am let me know it, as you 
know I can have no knowledge of the feelings of our people in 
the county, and only pronounce what I hope that feeling is, and 
what I think will be most fortunate if it is. If there is no other 
point where a different result shall be sought, I fear it will be 
found in the Custom-house ; therefore I should like well enough 
to be present at the proposed meeting, if the conclusion shall be 
to call one. I believe you know me well enough to know that I 
have none of that sort of vanity which would make me anxious 

* The author. 



\ 



220 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

to be present for any reason connected with myself; but if I 
could aid in uniting our friends and in inducing a conclusion 
which should put forth our utmost strengtli, that would be a 
great inducement. Appearances now warrant the conclusion 
that the next presidential election is to be fought, in a great 
deo-ree at least, next fall, because the final battle of the bank 
must be then fought, and, of course, the members of Congress 
will be the real point for the contest, and everything will be made 
to bend to those elections. Hence the necessity of unusual caution, 
self-denial and patriotism in arranging those elections and selecting 
our candidates. I doubt not that Bradish [who ran against the 
author two years before and failed] will be the opposition man, 
and he must be met. Who have they in Franklin that can 
run ? I do not know, and I think the half schism between Spen- 
cer and Gillet is perfectly healed, and that Spencer will go for a 
location in St. Lawrence and for Gillet. These are grave matters, 
and I wish you would write me upon them. 

" I shall suggest to Doty that if it is concluded to call a meet- 
ing, and to expect the attendance of Gillet and myself, the best 
way to fix the time will be to see when our adjournment is fixed, 
and then to put the meeting at least three weeks after that time. 
I shall expect to hear from you fully. Remember me to Mrs. 
Jenison and the little ones, and believe me, 

" Most truly yours, 

" SILAS WRIGHT, Jr. 

"MiNET Jenison, Esq." 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 221 



Chapter XLV. 

DEFENSE OF THE NEW YORK SAFETY FUND BANKING 

SYSTEM. 

In the early clays of banking in New York, althoiigli 
tlie banks acted as a nnit in securing advantageous privi- 
lages at the liands of the Legislature, there was little 
harmony of feeling or community of interest in business 
matters. It seldom grieved the managers of other banks 
when one failed to meet its obligations. Hence, failures 
frequently occurred. A remedy for this evil was anxi- 
ously sought. It was found in what was denominated 
the " Safety Fund system," originally devised by Joshua 
L. Forman, formerly of Syracuse, cautiously and wisely 
improved by Thomas W. Olcott, of Albany — still liv- 
ing — probal^ly the oldest and certainly as wise as any 
other banker in the State, and who has been in banks 
over sixty years, and half a century the controlling 
officer of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Albany. 
It was presented to the Legislature of New York by 
Martin Van Buren, when Governor of the State, and 
finally adopted by that body. 

It required all banks to make a contril)ution of one- 
half of one per cent annually, to constitute a fund to be 
held by the State to secure the bill-holders of failing 
banks, and provided for the appointment of commis- 
sioners to make periodical examinations of all banks, 
with authority to the Chancellor to appoint receivers for 
those failing in the performance of their duty to the 
public. Some of the Safety Fund banks had been 
selected as depositories of the public money by the Trea- 
sury Department. Fierce war was made UDon this bank- 



222 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

ing system by Mr. Clay and others. Tliey were well 
answered by Mr. Tallmadge and others. Mr. Wright 
thus defended It on the 26th of February, 1 834 : 

"Mr. Wright said he regretted to enter into this debate at all, 
but he felt it due to himself and the subject to give the answer 
which he had promised to the honorable Senator from Kentucky 
[Mr. Clay]; and before he did that, he would say that he rejoiced 
that there was no intention in this body to produce an excite- 
ment in the country ; that the Senator did not intend to produce 
that effect by the remarks he had made, but that he was able to 
add the gentleman's distinct denial that such was his intention, 

" He must be permitted further to say, before he replied to the 
interrogatory of the Senator, in justice to the Bank of Ithaca, in 
als State, the bank which tlie gentleman had named, that the 
remarks he had made in relation to it are most eminently calcu- 
lated to produce the very effect upon that institution which the 
Senator did not mean to produce. He must not be misunder- 
stood. He imputed no intention ; but he must say that the 
statement of the honorable gentleman [Mr. ClayJ, as to the Bank 
of Ithaca, the large amount of bills he had stated to be in circu- 
lation from that bank, and the very small amount of means to 
redeem them, unexplained, was directly and most happily calcu- 
lated to produce a panic in the public mind in the vicinity of that 
bank, and to cause the run upon it which he was happy to find it 
was the desire of all to avoid. 

" He must further say that, while he would not make the impu- 
tation against any individual in or out of this body, he deeply 
feared that certain presses in the country were daily and con- 
stantly publishing articles, and giving, very erroneously, what 
purported to be facts, most strongly calculated to excite the 
panic which the honorable Senator [Mr. Clay] had so often and 
so emphatically mentioned with disgust in the course of his 
remarks. In answer to these attempts to influence the public 
mind, he would say to the customers and bill-holders of, and to 
the depositors in, the Bank of Ithaca, what the honorable Senator 
had said, and so confidently repeated to the people of the whole 
country, 'Be calm, be serene and confident.' This ship of State 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 223 

is not to be run upon the rocks, nor are the disasters predicted 
to be experienced, unless the panic produces the result. We slmll 
ride out the present storm in safety, and peace and plenty will 
return to the land if the public mind remains unshaken. 

" I will now answer the honorable Senator in reference to the 
$5,000,000 of bank notes possessed by the Safety Fund banks of 
the State of New York, and which are set down by the bank 
commissioners as a part of their available means. I know not 
from what statement or authority the cjentleraan reads, but pre- 
sume it is from the summary of the bank commissioners of that 
State. I think they, in their annual report, after giving the 
detailed statement of the condition and means of each bank, 
gave a summary statement of the aggregate condition of all the 
banks under their cliarge and supervision; and I presume that 
this item is drawn from that summary statement. If I am right 
in this, it shows that all these banks, which the gentleman says 
are sixty-nine in number, have this $5,000,000 of the notes of 
other banks. The only error in the statement of which I have a 
right to complain (and that is a very material one at this period, 
and in the present agitated state of the public mind) is, that the 
gentleman says he assumes that all these are notes of the Safety 
Fund banks themselves. Now, sir, this is a violent presumption. 
The item is undoubtedly composed of all the notes of other sol- 
vent banks, held by the Safety Fund banks at the moment the 
statement was prepared. The amount, and the description of 
notes of which it would be composed, would be as fluctuating as 
the circulation of bank paper; but at any period the notes on hand 
Avould be those which the banks should think it desirable to 
receive or safe to keep; and, therefore, it may be confidently 
assumed that they were the notes of the best banks of the country. 
The proportion of Safety Fund bank notes would depend upon the 
proportion of these and other bank notes in circulation at the 
points where the collections are made and security felt in the 
institutions wliose notes should be thus kept in deposit. I speak 
from some acquaintance with those banks and their business 
when I say that I fearlessly venture the prediction that if an 
account of these notes were given there would be fonnd to l)e 
an amount of the notes of the Bank of the United States and its 



224 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

branches, greater, by five or ten times, than the amount of tho 
notes of any one Safety Fund bank. Sir, we were told the other 
day, by tlie honorable Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Webster], 
that the notes of the Bank of the United States were received 
and u^ed l>y the State banks as capital, and that they made dis- 
counts and did business upon them as such; and this was given 
to us as one of the merits of such an institution. This was and 
is true as to the notes of that bank, but is equally true as to the 
notes of any solvent State bank. Tho banks all consider the 
notes of their solvent neighboring institutions in their vaults as 
specie, and they do business upon them as such ; nor does it make 
any difference as to what bank issued them, provided they be 
notes current at their counter. 

"Why, Mr. President, should it not be so? Such notes are 
convertible into specie at will, and, therefore, are safe capital. 

" But, sir, suppose all this $5,000,000 of bank notes held by the 
Safety Fund banks of New York were the notes of the Safety Fund 
banks themselves, would it injuriously affect the standing of this 
ao-ffrearate account of all these banks? No, sir: it would show 
that the account was well made up. Take an instance: the Bank 
of Ithaca, in its statement, debits itself with the whole amount 
of its bills out, without reference to the place where they are, 
and credits itself with its means to meet those bills when they are 
called for. Ten thousand dollars of those bills are in one of its 
neio-hborino- banks, and, in making its account, it credits itself 
with these ^10,000 of Ithaca notes as a part of its means. Now, 
the charge in the one case and the credit in the other counter- 
balance each other, and, so far as the general summary statement 
of all the banks is concerned, the $10,000 of bills are redeemed. 
This is the nature of the item to which the Senator [Mr. Clay] 
refers, and this must be the only explanation of which that item, 
in this summary, is in any way susceptible. How far it is satisfac- 
tory is left to the Senate. To me it seems to be perfectly satis- 
factoiy, because the explanation shows that, where the item 
consists of bills of the Safety Fund banks, the credit, as means, 
by one, must be countervailed by a charge as debit by another. 
So much for the explanation I have promised. 

" I must correct the Senator in another and much more import- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 225 

ant errov into which he has fallen in relation to the manner in 
which the country banks in the State of New York do their 
business. The Senator [Mi-, Clay] says, when they have a cull 
which they have not the power to meet by the means of their 
vaults, they are in the habit of answering it by a draft, drawn 
upon the commercial cities of Albany or New York, on time. 
Such I understood to be the declaration of the Senator. [Here 
Mr. Clay signified that such was not the purport of his state- 
ment.] 

"Mr. W. continued: I will then state, Mr. President, distinctly 
what I did understand the Senator to say, and he will surely cor- 
rect me if I am wrong. I did understand him to allege that the 
banks in the interior were in the habit of making drafts upon the 
commercial cities before named, to answer calls which they had 
not tlie means to answer at their counters, without having, at the 
time, funds in those cities to meet such drafts. Whether or not 
he said the drafts were made upon time, is immaterial to my pur- 
pose. Am I right in this understanding ? [Mr. Clay said the 
Senatoi- had better go on.] 

"Mr. W. continued : Sir, I speak from personal knowledge, 
when I say no such drafts are made. It is the practice of those 
banks in the interior to keep nearly the whole of tlieir surplus 
funds in the cities. There these banks meet the great portion 
of their liabilities, and there they most need those funds; 
there, also, they obtain an interest upon those funds, and there- 
fore, as a matter of profit, as well as security, they are kept 
there. 

" Their usual and almost universal course is, to make an arrange- 
ment with some solvent city bank ; and these arrangements are 
made either in Troy, Albany or New York, and they receive an 
interest, I believe, as a general rule, varying from four to five 
per cent, the stipulation being always accompanied with the con- 
dition, either that notice of the draft shall be given, the drafts 
be made upon time, or that the amount in deposit shall exceed 
a certain stipulated sum, before interest is chargeable. I have 
recently understood that a very few of the western banks have 
made their arrangements with stockbrokers, and keep their 
accounts with them, but these cases only form an exception to 
15 



226 Life and Times op Silas Weight. 

the general rule. The solvent city banks are the general deposi- 
tories of these funds, 

" Sir, these country banks would not, if they had it, keep large 
amounts of specie on hand, in ordinary times, and when business 
was regular and undisturbed by any unusual excitement ; they 
would transfer it to the cities, where they would be most likely 
to need it, and where it would earn an interest, until they should 
require its use. What, then, can be inferred from the exhibit 
made by the Senator of the condition of these banks, so far as 
their specie funds in their vaults are concerned ? I say, confi- 
dently, nothing. Their funds are not kept idle in their vaults, 
but are placed where they are more needed, and where they can 
be usefully employed when not needed. I am asked, Avhat are 
those funds ? I will answer. The bank accommodates the mer- 
chant; he wants to use the accommodation in the city, and does 
so, and the bank meets the payment there. When the time of 
payment comes, the merchant sends to the market some com- 
modity, out of which he makes the money, and deposits it to the 
credit of the bank at the place in the city where the account of 
the bank is kept. This replaces the amount subtracted for his 
accommodation, and thus the fund in the city is kept good. No 
country bank draws upon the city bank, but upon funds previ- 
ously placed there to meet the draft ; I say, none. There may 
be cases where such drafts are made, but never without previous 
arrangement for their acceptance ; and I hazard nothing in saying 
tliat there is not a country bank in the whole State whose draft 
would be accepted, but upon funds placed in the city to meet it, 
or upon an arrangement for its acceptance. There is no drawing 
upon time, or upon the contingency of a general credit. 

" The honorable Senator tells us that certain brokers in New 
York have sent a quantity of country bank notes to Albany to 
be redeemed, and that their redemption was refused. Sir, I know 
not from what authority the gentleman speaks; but this I do 
know, that if the bills of any country banks were sent to Albany 
for redemption, and the banks which issued the bills had not 
funds in Albany for the purpose of their redemption, they would, 
of course, not be redeemed by the Albany banks. Why should 
they be ? Upon what principle could the banks at Albany be 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 227 

expected to redeem notes not their own, and without funds from 
the banks which issued them ? Surely upon none which belongs 
to the principles of safe and correct banking. 

"Again, Mr. President, we are told that large sums of money 
belonging to the Canal Fund of the State of New York have 
been, by the bank commissioners of the State, withdrawn from 
the banks in New York, where these moneys were drawing an 
interest, to be applied to redeem the notes of the Safety Fund 
banks. I have no doubt the honorable Senator [Mr. Clay] has 
been informed and believes this statement ; but from what source 
he derives his information I know not. I will tell him, however, 
what I do know, derived from personal and official knowledge, 
and it is, tliat his assertion cannot be true ; that the bank com- 
missioners of the State of New York have no more power over 
the moneys belonging to the Canal Fund of the State of New 
York, than the honorable Senator himself has. Those moneys 
are in the care of entirely different officers — officers holding the 
most high and responsible offices in the State. They have always 
been loaned where they were considered perfectly secure, and 
would command the highest rate of interest, and they never have 
been changed or withdrawn when so invested to consult the 
wants or interests of any bank. The law would not allow the 
officers having the charge of them to dispose of them from such 
motives, and those officers have not done so. They have, during 
the last year, and as I think ver}^ wisely, xised every effort to sink 
these moneys in the redemption of the stocks which they are 
destined to redeem ; and they have, to a great extent, succeeded. 
Those efforts are still making, and notwithstanding the great cry 
we hear in this body of distress and ruin, and scarcity of money, 
and almost starvation, overspreading the Avhole land, such is the 
state of things that the guardians of this fund cannot purchase 
these stocks (five per cent stocks, redeemable in 1 845) at a lower 
rate than about sixteen per cent above their par value. 

"Mr. President: I regret exceedingly to have been compelled 
to enter into an incidental debate of this character ; and I would 
not have done so had I not considered myself called upon to 
explain allegations made in reference to the business affairs of 
my own State, and to transactions which no members of this 



228 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

body but my honorable colleague and myself could be supposed 
to understand. I have done this, and will merely reply to a 
remark or two made by the honorable Senator from Ohio [Mr. 
Ewing], when I will resume my seat. The gentleman has 
denounced, in no measured terms, the Safety Fund system of my 
State, as applied to our banks. He thinks, as others have 
thought, that the safety of the banks is endangered by it ; but 
he seems wholly to overlook the security afforded to the com- 
munity, to the billholders and depositors. He seems to suppose 
that because the fund is not large enough to redeem all the bills 
in circulation, of all the banks at once, he proves that the secu- 
rity is fallacious. Sir, he is mistaken. The billholder, the depo- 
sitor and the whole community, with the exception of the stock- 
holder, is ultimately perfectly safe, unless every bank subject to 
the system be broken and destroyed. The fund may not be 
large enough in j^i'esenti, but the contributions must continue 
until the claims of the billholders and depositors are fully paid. 
What, then, is the difference between this system and the ordi- 
nary system, where there is no such security ? I hold the notes 
of an insolvent bank which has stopped payment. I cannot, in 
either case, get coin for my notes ; but if they be Safety Fund 
notes, I will eventually get dollar for dollar, and if they be not, 
I will get nothing. This is the simple difference, and this is the 
system which the gentleman thinks so mischievous and dangerous. 
I am not disposed to discuss with him the question whether these 
banks, by being made thus measurably responsible for each other, 
are more or less safe. I will only say that, if it be proper for 
legislation to consult any other object than that of filling the 
pockets of the stockholders, any portion of safety transferred from 
a bank to the billholders, the depositors and the community in 
general, is not objectionable to me. Such is the object of the 
Safety Fund system of New York ; and I verily believe that, in 
consulting the safety of the public, it has, in the best manner, 
consulted the greatest safety of the banks. [Mr. Ewing having 
made some reply to what had been said by Mr. W.] 

"Mr. Wright said he would relieve the gentleman.. He did 
not answer his main argument because he could not believe that 
it required an answer. The argument was, that making these 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 229 

Safety Fund banks mutually responsible for each other prevented 
them from keeping that salutary guard over each other's transac- 
tions, and especially over each other's issues, which banks in no 
way connected with, but acting as rivals to each other, would 
keep. The statement of the proposition seemed to him to be a 
sufficient answer to the ai'gument drawn from it. What, sir ! will 
a bank at this capital watch with less care the operations of a 
bank at the other end of this avenue, when it is fully responsible 
for all the notes of that bank, than when it has no connection 
witli or ]-esponsibility on account of it V If that be the effect of 
such a responsibility, Mr. W. said he had mistaken the influence 
which the interests of men had over their actions. The motive 
to increased watchfulness was direct and palpable, and that such 
a motive would have the effect to destroy that watchfulness, he 
could not see or believe. 

" While up, he would say one word in answer to a suggestion 
which had fallen from the honorable Senator when he first 
addressed the Senate, and to which he had intended to reply. 
The Senator [Mr. Ewing] seems to suppose that the circulation 
of the notes of the banks of New York has been less extensive 
and less broadly diffused, since the establishment of the Safety 
Fund system, than before that time. He mistakes the fact. Mr. 
W. said he spoke from knowledge when he asserted that, from 
about one year after the establishment of that system, the public 
confidence had increased greatly as to the security of the notes 
of the Safety Fund banks, and that the circulation of those notes 
out of and beyond the limits of the State had been two or three 
times as great as at any former period. Yes, sir, they flew over 
into the territory of the Senator's own State, and even beyond it. 
He [Mr. W.] had himself known instances where remittances had 
been directed to be made to Kentucky, in the notes of the Safety 
Fund banks, when the notes of the other banks of the State, 
entirely solvent, but not subject to the Safety Fund law, would 
not be received. 

"At first, said Mr. W., fears were entertained. The banks 
were fearful, and the bankers and politicians wrote and spoke 
against the plan, but time soon convinced all that the system 
was most valuable. The most experienced bankers of the State 



230 Life and Times of Stlas Weight. 

yielded then* assent to it, and the old banks came in and took 
new charters subject to the law. He did not feel disposed to 
institute a comparison between the science and skill and prudence 
and success of the bankers of his State and those of other States, 
but he was willing that their history, from the institution of 
banks in the State to the present time, should be examined, and 
he believed they would not be found to have been the least suc- 
cessful of all the bankers of the country. These men are now 
the warmest and strongest friends of the Safety Fund system. 
Indeed [Mr. W. said], he verily believed, if the honorable Sena- 
tors themselves [Mr. Ewing and Mr. Clay] would examine the 
legislation of New York upon this subject, not as politicians, but 
as intelligent lawyers, as they are, they would yield their full 
assent to its wisdom and safety." 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 231 



Chapter XLVL 

VIEWS CONCERNING LEGISLATIVE INQUIRIES INTO THE 
DUTIES OF GOVERNMENT OFFICERS. 

Mr. Poindexter had offered various resolutions con- 
cerning the public lands, and for the appointment of a 
committee to make sundry inquiries, and among them 
one in relation to the recorders and receivers of the land 
offices, and how they had performed their duties. Mr. 
Shepley moved an amendment to the effect that, when an 
inquiry involved the legality of their acts, they should 
be notified and have leave to present their defense. 
This amendment was resisted by Mr. Clay and others. 
Mr. Wkight sustained the amendment, and presented 
his views of the duties of committees of inquiry when 
not specially instructed. Under the resolutions, as modi- 
fied, he would have presumed that notice would be given. 
He said : 

"He was, however, now at liberty to make this presumption, 
becaxxse it had been distinctly declared by the honorable Senator 
from Connecticut [Mr. Smith], and intimated by several other 
members, in the course of their remarks, that it would not be 
the duty of the committee to give any notice to any accused 
officer; that the committee were a mere inquest; that they were 
to act as grand jurors, and in no other character; that they were 
not to hear exculpatory evidence, if offered; but they were to 
act exclusively in an ex parte and accusatory character. This 
was presenting the duties of the standing committees of this 
body in a new light to him. Were they mere bodies of inquest, 
mere ex parte examiners of the subjects referred to them ? He 
had not so understood the matter. He had understood that the 
duty of a standing committee of the Senate was to examine the 
merits of the questions referred to them, and to advise the Senate 



Life and Times of Stlas Wright. 

as to its final action. Now it seemed that they were mere bodies 
of ex parte inquiry; and what, he would ask, was to be done 
with such a report when it came in? What was this ulterior 
and final action of which gentlemen spoke ?, Was it to refer the 
report back to the same committee, with instructions to examine 
the other side of the subject '? What else could it be ? If the 
Senate Avas not to obtain full information through its committees, 
how was that information to be obtained '? What was the course 
of the committees upon ordinary subjects? Was it merely to 
make ex parte inquiry ? If so, where was the testimony upon 
the other side to come from ? Mr, W. said, the position was a 
mistaken one. The committees of this body are not placed in 
the situation of grand jurors. It is not their duty to make ex 
parte examinations, but to inquire into the merits of all subjects 
referred to them, and to make a report advising the Senate as to 
its final action. Until, therefore, he could receive some informa- 
tion that this committee would so consider its duties, that it 
would feel bound to notify such officers as might be accused 
before it, and to give them an opportunity to be heard in their 
own defense, he could not vote for the resolution, as modified by 
the honorable mover, but must vote for the amendment which 
made that an express duty. He could not believe it was the 
intention of the Senate to make the duties of this committee 
under the resolution accusatory only ; to put wliole classes of 
officers within their power for the purpose of having them report 
to the Senate, and spread before the public ex parte examinations 
and accusations which the persons accused had no opportunity 
to answer or explain. Still, such had been the practical effect 
of the opinions and views expressed by the honorable Senator 
from Connecticut [Mr. Smith], and, as he understood, assented 
to by others, and, until counter indications should be given by 
the committee, he must be in favor of the amendment. 

" Mr, Wright said, the second resolution refers to the combi- 
nations and companies to which the honorable Senator from 
Kentucky [Mr. Clay] alludes. To those persons he did not ask 
that notice should be given. He cared not what the result of an 
investigation might be to them. They were not public officers, 
and had acted upon their private responsibility only. But if the 



Life and Tuies of Silas Weight. 

honorable Senator had cast his eyes over the third resolvition, he 
would have seen that he was widely mistaken in supposing that 
the express direction to the committee was not to inquire into the 
official conduct of every land office in the whole United States. 
He would read the resolution. It was as follows : 

'''Resolved, That the said committee be instructed to inquire wlietlier tlie 
registers of the land otfices, and the receivers of public moneys, at any of 
the land offices of the United States, or either of them, have, in violation of 
law, and of their otficial duties, demanded or accepted a bonus or premium 
from any pui'chaser or purchasers of the public lands at public or private 
sale, for the benefit of such officer or officers, as a condition on which such 
purchaser or purchasers should be allowed to enter or purchase any tract 
or tracts of land offered for sale by the United States; and, also, whether 
any register or receiver, as aforesaid, has been guilty of fraud or partiality 
in the sales of public lands by adopting rules and regulations, in their 
respective offices, inconsistent with the laws of the United States.' 

" Here was a positive direction to inquire into the conduct of 
these officers, and into their violations of the laios of the United 
States, and to make those inquiries only. It was to such officers 
that he thought notice sliould be given. He did not believe that 
they should be condemned unheard. If the lioiiorable Senator 
woixld look further, he would find that the fourth resolution con- 
tained the same direction, confined to the land offices in tlie 
State of Mississippi, and to a particular description of illegal 
acts. [Here some Senator remarked that this resolution had 
been so modified as to extend to all the land offices in the United 
States.] Mr. W. proceeded. He said he stood corrected; that 
he was told this resolution also had been made as broad as the 
third, and it only strengthened the ground for wliich he con- 
tended. 

" Tlie Senate would see that he could feel no interest in these 
inquiries. The land offices were so far removed from his State 
that neither himself nor his constituents knew much about them 
or the officers who occupied them. That abuses might exist 
was more than likely ; and he hoped to be believed when he said 
that no member of the Senate was more willing or anxious than 
he was that where they existed they should be ferreted out and 
the guilty punished. Still, he was unprepared to say that ex parte 
accusations should be spread before the public against any 



234 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

officer of the government. All ought to be heard and to have 
an opportunity for explanation and defense, and his present object 
was to cause the question before the Senate to be clearly under- 
stood, that every member might vote as his judgment should 
dictate. For his own part, after the distinct declaration of the 
honorable member of the committee [Mr. Clay], that notice ought 
not to be given, that he, as a member of the committee, should 
not feel bound to give such notice, but should consider it improper 
to give it, he [Mr. W.] had no alternative but to vote for the 
amendment, which required that notice should be given to any 
accused officer, and that he should be allowed to cross-examine 
the witnesses against him and to make his defense." 

The principles thus presented it seems difficult to con- 
trovert, although not assented to by a majority of the 
Senate. A man' s character may be easily destroyed by 
ex parte evidence taken down and sworn to, and pre- 
sented by a legislative committee, to the public, and 
printed. This is more especially so when the movement 
has its origin in partisan considerations, and its execution 
is designed to secure a particular result. The rule for 
which Mr. Wright contended, if fairly carried out in 
practice, would defeat the possibility of such results. 
Those whose acts could bear the test of scrutiny would 
have an opportunity for self-defense, while justice only 
would be meted out to those whose conduct should be 
indefensible. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 235 



CHAPTER XLVIL 

EXTENDING THE CHARTER OF THE BANK OF THE UNITED 

STATES. 

The friends of the Bank of the United States were 
persevering in their efforts to renew its charter. Numer- 
ous speeches were made in Congress in favor of it, and 
widely circulated throughout the country. Its opponents 
were not idle in their efforts to defeat that object. On 
the 18th of March, 1834, Mr. Webster asked leave to 
introduce a bill, in the Senate, to modify and extend the 
charter for the period of six years. His motion, unex- 
pectedly to him, brought on a spirited discussion by the 
ablest debaters in the Senate, which induced him, on the 
twenty-fifth of March, to move to lay his motion on the 
table, which was carried. Among those opposed to 
extending the charter of the bank was Mr. Wkight, who, 
on the 20th of March, 1834, delivered the following well- 
considered and effective speech : 

" Mr. Weight said it was not his purpose to enter into a dis- 
cussion of the great pruiciples involved in the passage of the bill 
upon the table. His object in obtaining the floor, upon a former 
day, had been to reply to some things which had fallen from the 
honorable Senator from Virginia [Mr. Leigh], and to notice a 
few remarks made by the honorable chairman of the Committee 
of Finance [Mr. Webster], when he offered the bill. He must, 
he said, however, be permitted to congratulate himself that the 
Senate had now i-eached what he had, from the commencement 
of the session, considered the true question before Congress and 
the country ; the question of ' bank or no bank ;' the question 
whether the present Bank of the United States should be rechai*- 
tered for any period of time, or whether any National Bank 
should be created by the authority of Congress, after the expi- 



236 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

ration of the charter of the present bank. These questions, he 
considered, must be involved in the present discussion ; and he 
must be permitted further to congratulate himself that, as to the 
constitutional power of Congress to pass the bill now under con- 
sideration, or any bill to charter a bank similar to that now 
existing, the opinions of the honorable Senator from Virginia 
[Mr. Leigh] and his own perfectly coincided. The honorable 
Senator did not believe, nor did he himself believe, that Congress 
possessed any such power, and therefore, so far as their action 
was concerned, no such bank could exist after the year 1836, 
-when the charter of the present bank will expire by its own 
limitation. 

" Mr. W. said he would not attempt to repeat the arguments 
which the honorable Senator had so happily used, in his clear 
and strong manner, to establish the correctness of their opinions. 
Any attempt by him to do so might weaken Avhat had been so 
well and so concisely said by the Senator, but he would detain the 
Senate to add one view of this subject, which had not been taken 
by the honorable Senator, and which had struck his mind with 
great force. Upon all former occasions, wlien the power of 
Congress to charter a bank had been under discussion, reference 
had been made to that clause of the Constitution which reads in 
the following words: 

" ' The Congress shall have power to make all laws which shall be neces- 
sary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all 
other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of tlie United 
States, or in any department or officer thereof.' 

" All, Mr. W. said, as he understood, had formerly argued that 
this necessity must be shown before the power could be inferred, 
and he had also understood that all had admitted that this consti- 
tutional necessity must be a necessity growing out of the wants 
of the government, and not out of the wants of business ; that 
it must be a necessity arising from the collection, distribution 
and disbursement of the ptiblic revenues, not out of the wants 
of the commercial interests, the mercantile interests, the manu- 
facturing interests, or any other branch of labor and enterprise; 
that it must be a necessity growing out of the wants of the 
public treasury and the administration of the finances of the 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 237 

country, and not out of the wants of the individual citizens. 
What, Mr. President, said Mr. W., have we heard urged as con- 
stituting this necessity, in the wliole course of this debate, in all 
the various shapes and forms in which it has been carried on in 
this body for now about four months ? The wants of ordinary 
business, the demand for capital, the regulation of exchanges, 
the importance of a uniform paper currency ; not tlie wants of 
the treasury. These last, sir, have not been mentioned in the 
comparison, while the former are made the indisputable evidence 
that a bank is necessary. Sir, said Mr. W., the wants of the 
treasury, and the wants of the treasury alone, can constitute this 
constitutional necessity. The wants of business cannot be the 
legitimate subjects of consideration for those who seek to derive 
the power to charter a bank from this provision of the Constitu- 
tion. He said he was one of those who did not believe that any 
power whatever was granted to Congress by this provision, much 
less the power to charter a bank; but he must believe that those 
who did imply such a power from it would, at least, admit the 
necessity must be such an one as the Constitution contemplated, 
and that the Constitution could not have contemplated any othei' 
than a necessity connected with the collection, distribution and 
disbursement of the revenues of the government; not the ordinary 
necessities of trade and exchange. These last were the wants 
which gentlemen feared the State banks could not su[»})ly, though 
they were willing to engage to collect and distribute the j)ublic 
moneys upon the same terms that the United States Bunk liad 
done it. He begged the Senate to look at this view of the case 
before they permitted a necessity, imaginary or real, unknown to 
the Constitution, to influence their action. 

"But, said Mr. W., the honorable Senator and myself have no 
difticulties of this sort to contend with. To our minds it is clear 
that the power to pass this bill is not granted by the Constitution. 
Having come to this conclusion, the honorable Senator inquires, 
in his impressive manner, if the present disposition of the public 
deposits with the State banks is to be continued. Sir, said Mr. 
W., I will avail myself of a privilege belonging to my country- 
men, the Yankees, and answer the gentleman by asking him a 
question. What disposition will he propose to make of tliese 



2S8 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

deposits ? What plan will he recommend for their future dispo- 
sition ? We agree that the charter of the Bank of the United 
States is unconstitutional, and it cannot, therefore, be extended 
beyond its present limit. I say that, in the absence of such an 
institution, the State banks present to the government the best 
and most convenient fiscal agents of which the nature of the 
case is susceptible. I have said upon a former occasion, and I 
repeat, that I think them perfectly safe agents. I have said, and 
I repeat, that I think them fully competent to discharge all the 
duties required by the government in the collection and disburse- 
ment of the public revenues; fully competent to answer every 
constitutional necessity of the treasury. I now say, further, that 
I am not alarmed at the power which is placed, by law, in the 
hands of the President and the Secretary of the Treasury over 
these deposits. It is the same power which was placed by Con- 
gress in the hands of the first President and first Secretary of the 
Treasury, at the formation of the government, under the Consti- 
tution; it is the same power which existed in the hands of those 
officers from 1789 up to the year 1816, when the charter of the 
present bank was granted. During all that period the liberties 
of the country were not endangered by it ; the people were not 
then taught to believe that the exercise of that power was usurpa- 
tion or tyranny. No dangcu- was then seen or apprehended, nor 
were we told that the purse and the sword of the country were 
united in one hand. Sir, said Mr. W., these laws have undergone 
no material alteration from the tiine of the first Congress to the 
present day, except the alteration made by the provisions of the 
present bank charter, and these alterations cease to be applicable 
when the deposits cease to be made with that institution. Where, 
then, is the ground for all this alarm, all this apprehension for 
our liberties ? Still the honorable Senator expresses, no doubt 
most sincerely, the greatest apprehension. Will he not, then, tell 
us what is to be done ? Will he not propose what, in his judg- 
ment, shall avert the dangers he fears? Sir, I wish to be dis- 
tinctly understood upon this point. I do not contend that these 
laws may not be beneficially amended, but I merely say that they 
are just what they have been from the organization of the govern- 
ment, with the single exception I have before mentioned, contained 



Life and Times of Silas Wrwrt. 239 

in the bank charter. If they are bad, alter and amend them. If 
the powers over the public deposits conferred upon the Executive 
Department are too broad, limit and confine them. No one doubts 
or questions the power of Congress over the whole matter; no 
one resists the action of Congress upon it. Surely, then, it does 
not become us to find fault with the executive officers of the 
government for executing the laws as they are, while we do 
nothing to modify tlie law and make it what we would wish it 
to be. Our duty, as legislators, is not to point out the defects 
in the laws merely, but to apply the proper remedies for those 
defects — to examine the laws as they are, that we may make 
them what they ought to be — not to spend our time in deploring 
those defects, for which we offer no remedy. Sir, said Mr. W., 
I have not allowed myself time to make sucli an examination of 
the laws of Congress as enables me to say whether any, and what, 
alterations are required in those relating to the Treasury Depart- 
ment, and the management and disposition of the public deposits. 
That changes for the better may be made is more than probable; 
and I declare myself ready, at any period, to act upon proposi- 
tions having this for their object, come from what source they 
may. J am sure, however, gentlemen will see that Congress 
should discharge its duty before we are at liberty to complain of 
the laws as they are. Mr. President, said Mr. W., we all know, 
and know well, that it is easy to find fault; that it is easy to com- 
plain of existing evils, when it may be very difficult to propose 
remedies which will even suit ourselves, and much more difficult 
to propose those which will meet the approbation of Congress. 
I have said that I am not prepared to make propositions; and 1 
venture the ])rediction to the honorable Senator that he, and those 
gentlemen who, with him, are so deeply dissatisfied with the 
existing law, will find it much more difficult to legislate upon 
this subject, in a safe and proper manner, than they now seem to 
suppose, and that they will find the changes which can be bene- 
ficially nuide in the existing laws much less extensive than they, 
by their complaints, would indicate. Still, sir, I repeat, gentle- 
men should turn their attention to this subject. If we are to 
have no Bank of the United States, some disposition must be 
made of tlie public deposits. I say, place them in the State 



V 



240 Life and Times of Silas Wrwbt. 

banks; but if, as tlie remarks of many honorable Senators would 
seem to indicate, the State banks are not to be used, they are surely 
bound to inform us what disposition they intend to make of them. 
I am aware, Mr. President, that these remarks address themselves 
less appropriately to those Senators who believe we ought to 
have a national bank, and propose such an institution as their 
remedy for the evils of which they complain, than to those who, 
With the honorable Senator from Virginia and myself, believe 
that the Constitution does not give us the power to charter- such_ 
a bank, and that, therefore, it is a remedy beyond our reach; 
but, sir, these are considerations which should address themselves 
to the serious reflections of all. They are considerations con- 
nected with our duties as legislators, and in reference to which 
it is now most likely we shall be soon called to act. 

" Mr. W. said the honorable Senator from Virginia [Mr. Leigh] 
had told us that the present year might throw new lights upon 
this subject, and might develop, in his own State, at least, a 
new condition of public feeling in reference to the recharter 
of the bank. The State of Virginia, he said, might see that 
the present bank was to be destroyed merely to make room 
for another national bank, in a greater degree subject to execu- 
tive influence, and located in the city of New York. Well, sir, 
said Mr. W., what then ? Suppose Virginia does so see (which 
I think she will not), what can be the efiiect upon her action ? 
She has pronounced the charter of the present bank unconsti- 
tutional, and she must, therefore, be held to have pronounced 
its recharter, or the chartering of any similar bank, wherever 
located, equally unconstitutional. Will she then call upon her 
representatives here to vote for a law, which she declares to be 
a violation of the Constitution, to prevent a change in the loca- 
tion of a national bank? No, sir. With all deference, I say tlie 
people of Virginia do not change their constitutional opinions 
for such reasons, or govern their constitutional action by such 
motives. She will not give her voice for a bank which she 
believes to be unconstitutional, to secure its location or to pre- 
vent its location anywhere. 

" But again, the honorable Senator says, the State of Virginia 
may see that the State banks are to be continued as the fiscal 



Life and Thies of Silas Wright. 241 

agents of the treasury, and that, in that event, the control of 
the exchanges, and to some extent of the currency of the coun- 
try, must pass to the city of New York. He assigns as the 
grounds of this opinion, that the position of New York, its natu- 
ral advantages and great capital, have hitherto forced a large 
portion of the foreign trade of the country to center at tliat 
point ; that this will continue to be the course of that trade ; and 
that, therefore, commercial men in all parts of the country must 
have money current in New York to carry on their opei-ations. 
Sir, said Mr. W., I neither affirm nor deny the gentleman's posi- 
tions, but, for the sake of the argument, suppose them to be 
well taken; and does he believe that the State of Virginia will 
invoke the aid of the legislation of Congress, and that too by 
the passage of a law which she herself believes to be unconstitu- 
tional, to deprive the city of New York of the advantages which 
nature has given it — to deprive it of the advantages which the 
enterprise and industry of its citizens have acquired for it ? 
Does the Senator believe it possible that the State of Virginia 
will call upon her representatives here or elsewhere to vote to 
recharter a bank which she has solemnly pronounced to be an 
institution existing in violation of the Constitution, for the mere 
purpose of forcing out of New York the regulation of the 
exchanges of the country ? Sir, the Senator himself does not so 
intend. He told us, in the course of his remarks, that he rejoiced 
at the prosperity of every State in the Union, and entertained 
not the least invidious feeling toward any. It must be, there- 
fore, either that I have misapprehended the force of tlie remarks 
of the honorable Senator, or that he did not sufficiently develop 
liis ideas to give us their true bearing. I can never believe that 
the State of Virginia will ever seek to do injustice to a sister 
State ; I am sure she Avill never do what she pronounces a viola- 
tion of the Constitution of the country to effect such an object. 
" The lionorable gentleman proceeds, again, to say that tlie 
State of Virginia may see, in the course of this year, that the 
confederacy cannot sustain the destruction of this bank ; that its 
destruction may involve the dissolution of this Union. He refers 
to the territorial distribution of the debt due to the bank, and 
intimates that much the largest portion of that debt is due from 
IG 



242 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

citizens of the western States ; and then, in that impressive lan- 
guage in which everything reaches us coming from the honorable 
gentleman, he asks, vs^ill these citizens consent to have their 
houses sold from them, and themselves and their families to be 
reduced to poverty and want, for the sake of the destruction of 
the bank ? It is not my purpose, Mr. President, said Mr. W., to 
speak of the pecuniary condition of the citizens of the western 
States. My information does not enable me so to speak. One 
thing, howevei', I do know, sir, and am most happy to be able to 
say, that no portion of the citizens of this republic have hereto- 
fore, and up to this period, been more patriotic, more devoted, 
more disinterestedly devoted, to the safety and perpetuity of our 
civil institutions, and to the integrity of our Union, than the citi- 
zens of the west ; none have more willingly or more severely 
suffered to secure these objects than they have. I doubt not that 
the same spirit and patriotism still prevail among them ; and 
while I know not the extent of their indebtedness, or their means 
of payment, I hope and believe they have not arrived at that state 
when the power of a creditor moneyed corporation is paramount 
with them to their attachment to the Constitution and laws of 
their country. 

" But, sir, the effect upon the action of Virginia is the question 
I projDose to consider. Will that patriotic State instruct her 
Senators to vote for a law which she has adjudged a violation of 
the Constitution, because the debtors of a bank, created by an 
unconstitutional law, cannot discharge that indebtedness ? Will 
the State of Virginia admit that a Bank of the United States, 
with a charter not authorized by the Constitution, and with 
seventeen years of life only, has the power to destroy the con- 
federacy of the States and dismember the Union, and then, by 
her own voice and action, give that bank further life and further 
power ? I cannot think so ; and I am convinced, if the honorable 
Senator [Mr. Leigh] reviews the tendency of his remarks and 
conclusions, and the important results which may follow the 
decision of the question now before us, he will not, he cannot 
feel that indifference, as to the action of Congress upon the bill 
now under consideration to reoharter the bank, which I under- 
stood him to express when giving his sentiments to the Senate. 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 243 

" Mr. W. said the honorable Senator had, for the second time, 
alluded to the subject of the transfer drafts, with which he had 
upon both occasions, coupled the transactions of the Post-office 
Department ; and in that way he had presented to the Senate, 
with his characteristic clearness and force, a case of misraanatre- 
ment of the public funds, which, upon the Senator's first exhibition 
of it, had perceptibly an effect upon all sides of the House. The 
Secretary of the Treasury, as the head of one of the execu- 
tive departments of the govei-nment, had been presented to 
us lending money from the public treasury gratuitously, 
and without interest, to the State banks, to enable them to sus- 
tain themselves; while the Postmaster-General had been brought 
in, upon the other hand, as the head of another of these execu- 
tive departments, borrowing money for the use of the govern- 
ment and paying an intei-est of six per cent for the loans so 
made. Upon this presentation of the case, and especially with 
the vivid coloring which the honorable Senator imparted to it, 
he, Mr. W., was ready to admit that attention was justly excited. 
He had, therefore, taken some pains to inform himself as to the 
facts, and he would attempt to give them to the Senate in an 
intelligible form, and leave to the judgment of the body the 
degree of blame which should be considered fairly imputable 
anywhere from the transactions. The first and great error in the 
gentleman's case was the connection of the Post-office with the 
Treasury Department. If he had taken the trouble to examine 
the subject, he would have found that the Secretary of the 
Treasury could no more pay money from the public treasury to 
answer the wants of the Post-office Department, without the 
authority of a law of Congress, than he could pay money for the 
wants of the private business of the honorable Senator or him- 
self. If he had examined the laws of Congress upon the subject, 
he would have found that no appropriation of money from the 
public treasury for the use of the Post-office Department existed, 
which had not been promptly and fully paid. The idea, there- 
fore, that the Secretary of the Treasury might have taken the 
money on deposit in the Bank of the United States, to the credit 
of the Treasurer of the United States, and appropriated it to the 
wants of the Post-office Department, is fallacious and deceptive. 



244 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Without a direct and palpable violation of the law, and of liis 
official powers and duties, he could not have made any such dis- 
position of these moneys; and surely, at this time, when the 
Secretary of the Treasury is so broadly accused of constitutional 
as well as legal violations, the gentlemen who make the accusa- 
tions will not be disposed to censure him for not having violated 
the law in this instance. Mr. W. said he did not intend, by any 
expression he had made or might make, to convey the most dis- 
tant impression that the honorable Senator had designedly con- 
veyed an erroneous impression as to the relations between these 
two departments of the government. Considering both as 
equally public interests, he had, undoubtedly, omitted to turn his 
attention to the want of legal authority to make the payments, 
which the import of his remarks went to show ought to have 
been made, from the moneys remaining in the treasury. It will 
be seen, however, said Mr. W„ that the imaginary connection 
between these two departments, which gave to the Senator's rela- 
tion the most point, as an instance of executive mismanagement, 
lias no legal existence whatever, and therefore wo have the Post- 
office Department, and its management and administration, 
wholly separated from the operations of the treasury. How, 
then, stands the loans to the State banks of which the honorable 
Senator speaks ? On the first of October last, tlie Secretary of 
the Treasury came to the conclusion to change the deposit of the 
public moneys, thereafter to be received, from the Bank of the 
United States and its branches to various State banks which had 
been selected by him for that purpose. He was aware that, in 
consequence of the deposits having been previously made in the 
Bank of the United States and its branches, large balances must 
have accrued in favor of the deposit bank and branches against 
the State banks, in the principal commercial cities, because the 
revenue collected in those cities must have been paid by the 
whole trading population, Avho must derive their means of pay- 
ment from all the banks, while those means, applied to those 
payments, must go into the single bank or branch in which the 
public moneys were kept; he was further apprehensive that the 
United States Bank would assume a hostile attitude towards the 
banks which should consent to receive the deposits of the public 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 245 

moneys in lieu of that institution, and would call for any bal- 
ances which might exist in its favor against any of those banks, 
and would require the payment in specie, before time would be 
allowed for the banks to receive any benefit from the deposits ; 
he also knew that, by a law of Congress, the public revenue was 
payable in the bills of the Bank of the United States and its 
branches, while those bills could not be converted into specie, in 
case the bank should choose not to redeem them at the points 
where they should be received, except by causing them to be 
presented at the bank or office which issued them, or where, upon 
their face, they might be made payable; he also knew that, by 
an order of his department, a certain description of paper put 
into circulation by the bank and its branches, and known by the 
appellation of ' Bank Drafts,' but which Mr. W. said he believed 
the highest court in the country had decided were neither ' bills ' 
nor 'notes' of the bank, were made receivable in payment of 
the revenue, which drafts, if the bank sliould refuse to i-eceive 
them as money, at the place where taken in payment, could not 
be converted into specie, or even into bills of the bank, but by 
presentment at the bank or office upon wliich they were drawn. 
The knowledge of these facts showed the Secretary that, should 
the bank be thus disposed, it could exert a double power of injury 
against the State institutions which were to take tlie deposits, by 
instantly calling for the payment in coin of any balances in its 
favor, and by refusing to take in payment of those balances the 
notes and drafts of the bank itself, not made payable at the 
bank or branch where the payment was to be made. In this way, 
and by this double power of oppression, the State institutions 
might be severely injured, and perhaps ruined, and that, too, when 
the balance to be paid had accrued solely from the payments 
towards the public revenue, and when the notes and drafts, 
refused in payment, had also Ijeen received in collections of the 
public revenue. To guard against this contingency, the Secre- 
tary gave to a few of the banks, in the large cities, the transfer 
drafts in question, which drafts were made upon the United 
States bank, or the branch at the point where the oppression was 
apprehended, and in favor of the State bank upon which it was 
anticipated the attempt might be made. In all cases precise 



246 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

instructions were given that the drafts should be returned to 
the department, without presentment, unless tlie balance before 
spoken of should be hastily demanded in coin, or unless the 
bank or branch at the point should refuse the notes of other 
branches, or the branch drafts, as money ; but in either of those 
contingencies the drafts were to be presented, and the amount 
taken from the public money left with the bank or branch was 
to be transferred to the State bank and passed to the credit of 
the public treasury there. The honorable Senator has selected 
the Manhattan Bank of New York to illustrate the abuse he 
supposed to exist. In that case the balance was demanded, and 
the notes of other branches of the bank and the branch drafts 
were refused to be received in payment, or passed to the credit 
of the bank offering them ; the draft from the department was 
presented and paid, and soon after the bank changed its course 
and consented to receive all its notes and drafts, which should 
be taken in payment of the public revenue, as money. Some of 
the other drafts were presented, and others were returned to the 
department without presentment. These are the facts as to 
what the honorable Senator has so significantly termed loans to 
the State banks. How far they deserve that appellation, Mr. 
W. said he would most cheerfully leave it to the Senate and the 
public to judge. But, says the honorable Senator, the loans 
were made without interest. Has the honorable gentleman over- 
looked the fact that the money was standing to the credit of the 
Treasurer, in the Bank of the United States, without interest ; 
that the transaction was a mere transfer of the amount of the 
draft from the credit of the Treasurer, without interest, in one 
bank, to the credit of the Treasurer, witliout interest, in another 
bank ; that the draft did not take one dollar from the treasury ; 
that the money, when placed to the credit of the Treasurer in 
the State bank, was no more a loan to it than when standing to 
the credit of the Treasurer, in the Bank of the United States, it 
was a loan to it ; and that, in either situation, the amount was 
equally subject to the drafts of the Treasurer at pleasure ? 

"I am bound, said Mr. W., to give to the honorable Senator 
from Virginia my unfeigned thanks for according to me sincerity 
in the declaration, made on a former day, that my opposition to 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 247 

the Bank of the United States did not pi-oceed from a desire to 
transfer the location of that institution to my own State ; I at 
the same time expressed my most firm conviction that the oppo- 
sition of that State proceeded from no such motive. Sir, said 
Mr. W., I was sincere in both declarations. The republicans of 
New York do not oppose this great moneyed power upon the 
narrow ground of selfish or local interest, much less from a desire 
to transfer its influence within the limits of their own State. 
Their opposition proceeds from higher motives and is maintained 
for nobler purposes. They believe it to be a power dangerous 
to the government, dangerous to the purity of our institutions, 
and dangerous to the liberties of the people. Many of them 
believe it to be a power unknown to the Constitution, while others 
believe the constitutional power to create it may exist, but that 
it is a power which ought not to be called into exercise. Expe- 
rience, which is claimed here to prove the necessity of such a 
bank, has proved to them that such an institution ought not to 
exist in a free country, and their resistance to its recharter 
is based upon these high grounds of principle, and not upon 
any consideration of personal or local interest. The honorable 
gentleman's apprehensions, therefore, that this bank is to be 
destroyed merely to make room for another, similar or more 
powerful, to be located in New York, are without foundation. 

"Mr. President, said Mr. W., am I required to adduce proof 
of this assertion ? I need not better than the memorials from 
New York, almost daily laid before you, and, nearly without an 
exception, if coming from the opponents of the administration, 
praying for the recharter of the present bank. It is a fact, which 
does not admit of contradiction, that there is not, at this moment, 
in this Union, not even in the city of Philadelphia itself, a body 
of men more earnest, more active and more untiring in their 
efforts to effect a recharter of the present bank, with its present 
location, than a large portion of the merchants and business men 
of the city of New York. The honorable Senator has told us 
that New York desires the regulation of the exchanges of the 
country, that her citizens may profit from the purchase and sale 
of bills. Sir, a very large proportion of the individuals to whom 
this position of the gentleman would apply, in case those who 



248 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

best understood the subject thought it applicable, — a very large 
proportion of the exchange brokers and great money dealers of 
New York are foremost in the cause of the present bank, and are 
using their utmost exertions to produce a recharter. Need 1 
stronger evidence to show that no concerted local movement, nor 
any perceptible local interest, is governing the course of that 
State upon this great question ? 

" Mr. W. said he must now detain the Senate, while he very 
briefly replied to a few of the remarks of the honorable Senator 
from Massachusetts [Mr. Webster], made upon the presentation 
of the bill to the Senate. And first, the honorable gentleman 
had stated that the Safety Fund banks of New York were under 
the supervision of a political commission appointed by the 
government. He, Mr. W., must express his profound regret 
that he should so often meet with statements upon this floor, in 
relation to the Safety Fund banks of New York, which were errone- 
ous in fact and in conclusion, because gentlemen had not made 
themselves acquainted with the laws of that State regulating those 
banks. He had hoped that this would not have been the case with 
the honorable Senator from Massachusetts, but that he would have 
made himself familiar with that Safety Fond system before he made 
it the subject of remark here, and certainly before he passed sen- 
tence upon it as a political system. He had not done so, however, 
as was evident from the remark above referred to. The Bank 
Commissioners of the State of New York are three in number, 
and they are the officers whose duty it is to supervise the banks 
subject to the Safety Fund law. So far from being a political 
commission, appointed by the government of that State, as the 
honorable Senator has supposed, but one of the three commis- 
sioners is so appointed, and the remaining two are appointed by 
the banks themselves The one is appointed upon the nomination 
of the Governor, and by the advice and consent of the Senate 
of the State, as officers of this government are appointed by the 
President and Senate; and this commissioner may be considered 
as more especiallj^ the representative of the State, and of the 
public interests in the board of commissioners. The State is 
divided into two districts for the appointment of the other two 
commissioners, and each is appointed by the banks of his dis- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 249 

trict — every bank voting upon :i uniform rule, according to tlie 
amount of its capital stock. Tliese commissioners, thus appointed, 
are the exchisive representatives of the banks themselves, though 
the law makes no discrimination as to the powers and duties of 
the different members of the board. This is the true constitu- 
tion and mode of appointment of that commission, which tlie 
honorable Senator has denominated ' a political commission 
appointed by the government.' Sir, his mistake must have pro- 
ceeded from his inattention to the law of which he was speaking, 
for he did not intend to produce an erroneous impression as to 
the character of these officers. He may, if lie chooses, consider 
the commissioner appointed by the State a political officer. I will 
not occupy the time of the Senate to point out the injustice of 
such a conclusion; because, when I find that officer guarded ui»on 
each side by an officer of equal powers, and charged with the 
same duties, and deriving, in both cases, their official character 
from the banks themselves, I sufficiently divest the board of the 
political character which the gentleman has ascribed to it. I 
cannot be mistaken in this conclusion, unless the honorable Sena- 
tor shall contend that the banks select politicians as their repre- 
sentatives in the commission. If such be the ground he intends 
to assume, I can tell him, if the position were established, he, 
and not myself, would have occasion for joy that the commission 
was made political. It is a fact, Mr. President, which no one 
acquainted with the subject will deny, that a very large majority, 
I doubt not full two-thirds, of all the stocks of all the Safety 
Fund banks in the State of New York, are owned and lield by 
the political friends of the honorable gentleman, — by persons 
opposed in politics to the present administration. The plain 
democrats of New York, sir, are not rich; they hold few stocks; 
they live not by banks, but by the labor of their hands. Surely, 
then, if this bank commission, constituted as I have related, two 
of the three commissioners deriving their appointments from the 
votes of the holders of the stocks of these banks, be a political 
commission, it must represent the politics which the Senator 
himself approves, and it is not for him to complain of its char- 
acter. But, Mr. President, the honorable Senator is mistaken ; 
this commission is not a political commission ; the banks in New 



250 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

York are not political banks, nor do they attempt to exert a 
political influence. The citizens of that State, of whatever 
political party, do not invest their capital in the banks for politi- 
cal purposes ; they understand their interests too well to do so ; 
they make their investments for the profit to be derived from 
them, and the banks are conducted with a single view to this 
object. I wish, sii*; I had the power to persuade honorable Sena- 
tors to permit their minds to be undeceived upon this point. 
They lead themselves into many mistakes, upon the subject of the 
New York banks, by adopting this error, and reasoning from it, 
without a proper acquaintance with the law or the facts, from 
which correct opinions would be formed. The banks of New 
York are not political institutions. Their object is to make 
money; and if they can do that, and if the laws be such as to 
protect their rights, and to facilitate their operations directed 
to that object, they care not who rules, what political party 
triumphs or what politician succeeds. I owe it to candor to say, 
Mr. President, that in former years, and before the establishment 
of the present system of banking in that State, I had heard of a 
very few instances in which banks were charged, with too much 
appearance of truth, with interfering in the politics of the State ; 
but I am happy to be able to say that those instances, so far as 
my information extends, have been ' few and far between,' while 
I believe time has shown that every bank against which this 
charge was strongly supported has turned out to be insolvent. 

" The honorable Senator again tells us that the representatives 
from New York here express great fears of the power and influ- 
ence of the Bank of the United States, and asks if that State, 
with its league of banks, comprising together a capital of between 
$22,000,000 and $23,000,000, has cause to fear this institution. 
[Hei-e Mr. Webster explained that Mr. W. had misapprehended 
his remark; that he had not said that the New York banks had 
no cause to fear the Bank of the United States, but that his 
argument was, that the Senators from that State expressed great 
fear as to the power and influence of the Bank of the United 
States, with a capital of $35,000,000, extending its operations 
over the whole Union, while they expressed no fear whatever of 
the power and influence of the sixty-nine banks of their own 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 251 

State, embodying an aggregate capital of more than $22,000,000, 
and leagued together by legal provisions.] Mr. Weight resumed. 
He said he owed it to the Senator to say, that he had misappre- 
hended the force and direction of his remark, and he would con- 
form his answer to his present understanding of its application. 
This, said Mr. W., will make it necessary for me to inquire how 
far the Safety Fund banks of New York are, in the language of 
the honorable Senator, leagued together, so as to be properly 
viewed as one consolidated moneyed power. The only common 
interest between them, Mr. W. said, was their obligation to con- 
tribute to a common fund, which fund was taken possession of 
by the State, and held for the security of the public — the bill- 
holders and depositors of the banks first, and for the benefit of 
the banks ulteriorly, in case it should not be expended 
on account of failures of the banks. To what extent could 
this contribution be carried, because that was the measure 
of the league between the banks? In the first instance, to a 
yearly payment of one-half of one per cent upon the amount 
of the capital stock of each bank, which yearly payment 
was to be extended over the term of six years, and to amount, 
in the aggregate, to three per cent upon the aggregate capital 
stock of all the banks subject to the provisions of the Bank Fund 
law. These contributions were to constitute the fund, the man- 
agement of which remains with the State during the continuance 
of the charters of the banks, but the net annual income of which, 
over and above expenses, is distributed to the banks in the pro- 
portion of their respective contributions. The fund is a trust 
fund for the benefit and security of all who may have demands 
against the banks other than the stockholders, and the State is 
the trustee; but, if those demands are discharged by the banks 
themselves, the fund is theirs, and is to be returned to them at 
the close of their respective charters, according to their respective 
interests in it; and, in the meantime, as I have before remarked, 
the annual earnings of the fund, lawful expenditures from it being 
first deducted, are annually paid to the banks. This is the first 
step of the league. Now for the second. In case a bank, subject 
to the Bank Fund law, fails and the capital of the fund be reduced 
by the redemption of its notes — which are made redeemable at 



252 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

the Treasury of the State so long as there are moneys belonging 
to the Bank Fund in the treasury to redeem them with — then the 
contribution of one-half of one per cent upon the capital stock of 
all the banks subject to the law again commences, and continues 
until all obligations against the failing bank, in favor of bill- 
holders and depositors, are fully discharged, and until the capital 
of the fund is again restored to an amount equal to three per 
cent upon the aggregate capitals of all the banks making the 
contributions. This completes the liability of the New York 
Safety Fund banks for each other; and this is the whole extent 
of all the provisions of the laws of that State creating such 
liability. Do they, then, deserve the appellation of ' leagued 
banks,' in the general acceptation of those terms? The contribu- 
tion cannot, in any case, exceed the one-half of one per cent per 
annum upon the capital stock of the bank upon which the 
liability rests ; there is no community of capital ; no community 
of dividends ; no community of management, for each bank is 
managed by independent officers and by an independent board of 
directors, o-ivino; to the business of the institution such a direction 
as they please, without any control from or necessary consulta- 
tion with its neighboring institutions subject to the same law ; 
nor is there any community of liabilities further than has been 
before mentioned, and it will be seen that nothing in those 
liabilities extends any community of security to the stockholders 
of the separate banks, or any community of risk and hazard 
beyond the obligation to contribute the one-half of one per cent 
upon their capital stock yearly, in case misfortunes to other 
institutions should make such a call necessary. Are we, then, to 
be told that this connection between independent banks consti- 
tutes a moneyed power to be feared, as is the power of a single 
bank of 112,000,000 greater capital, wielded by a single board 
of directors, by a single set of officers, and the whole force and 
influence of which, for any purpose, may be directed to a single 
object and to a single point at pleasure ? Sir, said Mr. W., I do 
not see the analogy. The New York banks are about seventy in 
number, embodying in the aggregate less than $23,000,000 
of capital ; each owned separately by separate stockholders ; 
each having separate objects and separate governments ; all 



" \ 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 253 

the iuclucemeiits to healthful rivalship open to each as agamst 
all the others ; with no common interest or band of luiion but 
the contingent liability to the trifling contribution before stated ; 
a liability, to say the most, not greater than is required to restrain 
ruinous competition. Are these banks such a moneyed power as 
to deserve a comparison with the Bank of the United States, 
with its $35,000,000 of capital, wielded by a single hand ? 
The republicans of New York think not, and hence they choose 
their own system as much the lesser evil, and seek to rid them- 
selves and the country of the power and influence of a single 
institution which they consider dangerous to liberty. This is 
my answer to the honorable Senator's remark that we seem to be 
inconsistent in professing to fear the power of the Bank of the 
United States, while we say nothing as to the power of our State 
banks. 

" Mr. President, said Mr. W., it has been said, here and else- 
where (I do not now refer to any remark of the Senator from 
Massachusetts), that this contribution from the State banks of 
New York might, by repeated failures, become perpetual, and 
might dangerously weaken those institutions. Sir, said Mr. W., 
if I am not in error, the State of Massachusetts imposes a per- 
manent tax upon all the banks chartered by that commonwealth 
of one per cent per annum for the support of the government. 
This tax is just double the contribution which can be imposed 
upon the Safety Fund banks, and is perpetual without con- 
tingency ; it is, too, a tax for the sui>i)ort of the State govern- 
ment, in which the banks can have no interest subsequent to the 
payment, while the contributions from the New York banks inure 
to the benefit of the banks themselves, if a failure of some one of 
the institutions does not consume the fund. May I not, then, 
believe that apprehension upon this point will be no longer 
entertained ? 

"The honorable Senator entered his protest against what he 
called the war waged by the President against the bank. I pro- 
pose, Mr. President, to examine the facts in relation to this con- 
troversy, and I feel great confidence in being able to satisfy 
those wlio hear me that this protest comes from the wrong 
quarter ; that the protest, if one is to be made, should come 



254 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

from the other side. In what manner has the President of the 
United States waged war upon the bank ? This inquiry will be 
answered by a reference to his various messages, but I will not 
trouble the Senate further than to read from a single one. I 
find, in the annual message communicated to Congress on the 
8th day of December, 1829, the following notice of the bank : 

" 'The charter of the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, and its 
stockholders will most probably apply tor a renewal of their privileges. In 
order to avoid the evils resulting from precipitancy in a measure involving 
such important principles and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel that I 
cannot, in justice to the parties interested, too soon present it to the delibe- 
rate consideration of the Legislature and the people. Both the constitu- 
tionality and the expediency of the law creating this bank are well questioned 
by a large portion of our fellow-citizens ; and it must be admitted by all 
that it has failed in the great end of establishing a uniform and sound cur- 
rency.' 

" This is the mention of the bank made in the first message of 
the President, and what is it '? Not an attempt to interfere with 
the chartered rights and privileges of the institution, but a timely 
expression of doubt as to the propriety of its recharter, conveyed 
in the mildest language, and proceeding from the best of motives, 
to wit: 'to avoid the evils resulting from precipitancy in a 
measure involving such important principles and such deep pecu- 
niary interests.' Was this a declaration of Avar against the bank ? 
Was it an act of hostility to that institution, thus to warn it to 
prepare in time for its final close ? Was it wrong in the Presi- 
dent to say, Avhat he knew to be true, that ' both the constitu- 
tionality and the expediency of the law creating this bank are 
well questioned by a large portion of our fellow-citizens ?' Was 
it waging war against the bank to question the expediency of its 
recharter ? Sir, the bank has chosen so to consider it; and in a 
publication recently made by its board of directors, the paragraph 
I have just read from the message of 1829 is termed an ' assault ' 
upon the bank. Notices of a similar character, in substance, 
were taken of the bank in the two following annual messages; 
and in 1832, when both Houses of Congress passed a bill to 
recharter the institution, the President refused his assent to it, 
and in a respectful message communicated his reasons for that 
refusal to this body. This is all the war he has waged against 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 255 

the bank; and the hoiiovable Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay], 
upon a hxte occasion, told us that these messages were all ' non- 
committal ' documents ; that they did not even make known to 
Congress and the country the opinions of the President in relation 
to the bank. Permit me now, Mr. President, said Mr. W., to 
examine the other side of this controversy. Immediately after 
the publication of the message of the President, in December, 
1829, the bank commenced its efforts against his re-election. By 
its own showing, its expenditures, for the printing and distribu- 
tion of matter calculated and intended to influence public opinion, 
commenced at that period, and were continued in an increasing- 
ratio through that whole presidential term. It made itself a 
political instrument, and acted in open and avowed hostility to 
the President. Who does not know, sir, that the immense sums 
paid for printing were so paid for printing political matter? 
Who does not know that the speeches made in this body upon 
the veto message, in July, 1832, were calculated and intended to 
influence the elections of the coming fall ? I mean no disresi)ect, 
sir, to any individual by the remark. The speeches upon that occa- 
sion could not fail to have that tendency, nor can any one doubt 
that they were reprinted and broadly distributed by the bank 
because they were of that character. It is also abundantly shown 
to us that it caused to be printed, and ^pead over the whole 
country, newspapers and other political publications, with a pro- 
fusion never before witnessed upon a similar occasion. These 
were the first steps in the war waged by the bank against the 
President. Upon a recent occasion, its board of directors have 
issued to the public, and laid upon our tables, a communication, 
in which, as if to mark the character of their hostility, they class 
the President of the United States with the persons who counter- 
feit their notes, and tell us that, as kindred subjects, they have 
received, and will receive, kindred treatment at the hands of the 
bank. Is not this, sir, waging war against the President? And 
who, then, should protest? I pronounce that the war is not one 
waged by the President agamst the bank, but a Avar waged by 
the bank against the President, and, as such, I protest against it. 
The country will protest against it ; the people who have elected 
the President do and will protest against it. 



256 Life and Times on Silas Wright. 

" The honorable Senator intimated, in the course of his 
remarks, tliat I had, upon a former occasion, made an appeal to 
the prejudices of the people against banks. Sir, I have made 
no such appeal. I did appeal to their good sense, as applied to 
the information before them, in relation to the conduct of this 
institution to which I have just referred ; to its interference with 
the election of officers of the goverinnent ; to its open and 
avowed political action ; to its treatment of the President of 
their choice. I did appeal to the patriotism and love of liberty 
of the people against this bank for having thus exerted its immense 
moneyed 2:>ower to corrupt the press, endanger the safety of our 
free institutions and conti'ol the government. This appeal I did 
make; and I understood the honorable Senator, in the earnest- 
ness of debate, to permit himself to characterize it with the 
harsh appellation of a fraud. Sir, this may be the honorable 
gentlemen's opinion, but, in mattei's of this sort, opinion is every- 
thing. Entertaining the opinions I entertain, it is the imperious 
duty of every representative of the people, here or elsewhere, 
to make and reiterate these appeals, not to the prejudices, but 
to the intelligence of our citizens ; to expose the profligate 
conduct of this bank ; to point out the danger to our free 
institutions of its continued existence, and to mark the progress 
of its moneyed power, ' withering, as with a subtle poison,' that 
purity and truth which are the only safeguards of freedom. 
Sir, had I, with my opinions, made declarations from my place 
here, calculated to produce alarm in the public mind ; to shake 
the confidence of the people in the public officers of their own 
choice ; to create distrust toward the local banks ; to unsettle 
dependence upon the credit and currency of the country 
generally ; and to produce a feeling of agitation and panic, 
I ought not to have been surprised even if the strong charge of 
an attempt to practice a fraud upon the public had been made 
against me. Entertaining the opinions I do, were I to attempt 
to convince the free citizens of this republic that the country 
cannot get on without the aid of an immense moneyed incorpo- 
ration; without the aid of a bank large enough to control all our 
moneyed operations; large enough to control the government 
itself, and to convince them that the continuance of their liberties 



Life and Thies of Silas Wright. 257 

are dependent upon such an institution, I should subject myself 
to the accusation of an attempt to lead them into error. I do 
not intend, Mr. President, in making these remarks, to impute 
any but the most honorable intentions to any member of this 
body, and I make them to show how very differently we view the 
same act; how very different our opinions are in reference to this 
bank, I think the honorable Senator could not have given suffi- 
cient weight to this consideration when he spoke of the course of 
any individual as fraudulent towards the public. It is my 
design, upon this as upon all occasions, to extend to others that 
charity I ask for myself, and while I claim sincerity of purpose 
for ray own language, and my own acts, I as readily accord it to 
those who differ with me in opinion. 

" Another remark of the honorable Senator appears to me to 
deserve a similar reply. He told us, in his usual emphatic man- 
ner, when speaking of appeals to the people, that he knew such 
appeals, sometimes, made little men great, but that great men 
never resorted to such expedients. I have before remarked that 
opinion, in matters of this sort, is everything. Now, without 
the least design to impute to the honorable member any motive 
which is not strictly pure, I must be permitted to say to him, 
that too ardent a friendship for an institution such as I, in my 
conscience, believe the Bank of the United States to be, may not 
make great men greater. 

" The honorable Senator urges that this bank, having been 
chartered, and having incorporated itself and its transactions 
with the business of the country, ought not now to be thus sud- 
denly destroyed. Is it right, sir, to call the destruction sudden ? 
Did not the President, as long ago as in December, 1829, give it 
the most emphatic warning to prepare for its final close? Has 
he not done so annually, from that time to the present ? What, 
Mr. President, was the effect of that warning ? The whole debt 
due to the bank in December, 1829, wlien the first message of 
the President was transmitted to Congress, expressing doubts as 
to the constitutionality or expediency of a recharter of the bank, 
was, I think, about $42,000,000, perhaps $44,000,000, as I speak 
from memory, and cannot pretend to be precisely accurate. In 
May, 1832, this debt had increased to the enormous amount of 
17 



258 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

more than $70,000,000, thus showing a constant and rapid exten- 
sion of its loans as the final termination of its charter approached. 
Did the bank supjDOse that the grant of the monopoly to it for 
the period of twenty years gave it a right to expect or demand a 
continuance? Its constant extensions of its business as it 
approached the close of its chartered term would seem to indi- 
cate such an opinion; but I respectfully submit that the reverse 
ought to have been its conclusion. The privileges granted to it 
were of immense value, and a proper sense of the justice of Con- 
gress should have induced the stockholders to believe, even if 
the existence of a similar bank was to be continued in the coun- 
try, that they would not be made, for a second term, the exclu- 
sive recipients of this great bounty. 

" There is, Mr, President, said Mr. W., another view of this 
subject which strikes my mind with great force, and which, in 
my judgment, justifies the charge against the bank of a violation 
of one of its highest duties. The period of its existence was 
distinctly fixed upon the face of its charter, and it owed it to the 
country, as its highest duty, to prepare for that period in a man- 
ner which should enable it to go out of existence without a 
shock to any great national interest. The government conferred 
upon this institution privileges and benefits inestimable, and, in 
return for that libei'ality, it was its duty to come into exist- 
ence, to pass its prescribed terra, and to meet its close without 
being the cause of any convulsion in trade, or credit or currency. 
The bank was a creature of the law, and with the law it should 
have prepared itself to die quietly. This it has not done, but, on 
the contrary, as the termination of its legal existence approached, 
it has exerted its utmost power to strengthen its claims to a new 
existence. It has spread abroad its immense resources, and 
drawn within its vortex thousands of citizens, who, when the 
warning was given to it by the President to prepare for its disso- 
lution, were free from its influence and independent of its power. 
It has pursued a course in direct contradiction to the dictates of 
interest, if it had intended to submit to the contract between it 
and the government, and to terminate its existence at the pre- 
scribed limit. Do I, then, said Mr. W., do injustice to the bank 
when I infer that this course has been adopted to force an exten- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 259 

sion of its charter? Other motive for the adraitted conduct 
cannot be assigned. 

" Still we are told that this bank must not be thus suddenly- 
closed, because the shock given to trade and commerce, and the 
call upon debtors, will be greater than the country can sustain; 
and the bill before us proposes to extend its charter for the term 
of six years, to enable it to close its business. Sir, did not the 
President give to this institution more than six years' notice, that 
it must close its affairs with the expiration of its pi'esent charter ? 
Did it accept that notice and prepare itself for the event ? So 
far from it, its business was at once extended, and by its own 
acts its final close rendered more and more difiicult, without dis- 
tress to the country. Grant it the time proposed by the bill 
before the Senate, and what assurance have we that, at the expi- 
ration of the first four years of the period, its debt will not be 
extended to $100,000,000, instead of being reduced below 
$55,000,000, where it now stands? A rapid curtailment has 
taken place for the last five months, a curtailment so rapid as to 
embari'ass and distress the whole country, and to derange all its 
business operations, and still the debt due to the bank is more 
than 112,000,000 greater than it was in December, 1829, when the 
President, by his message to Congress, warned it to prepare for 
its final close at the expiration of its charter. I must, Mr. Presi- 
dent, be permitted to express my full conviction, drawn from 
these facts, that it is not the design of the bank to discharge its 
duty to the public by a quiet close of its affairs, but that, on 
the contrary, it is its settled purpose to force a re-existence, to 
overrule the government, coerce public opinion and compel a 
recharter. 

" We are told, Mr, President, by the honorable Senator that we 
must have a national bank; and what, sir, is the reason urged, as 
conclusive upon us, to establish the position ? It is the existence 
of the present pressure upon the money market of the country, 
said to exist in contemplation of the winding up of the present 
bank. Sir, said Mr. W., this proves to me merely not that we want 
a bank, but that we have a bank. Whence does the distress and 
pressure complained of proceed ? It, no doubt, has its origin in 
a complication of causes, among which a general system of over- 



260 Life and Ti3ies of Silas Weight. 

trading and the change of the revenue laws are among the most 
important ; but I cannot doubt tliat by far the most powerful 
cause, at this time in operation, is the hostile attitude which the 
Bank of the United States has thought it for her interest to 
assume toward the State banks. We liave it in evidence, among 
the documents of Congress, upon the oath of the chief officer of 
the bank, Mr. Biddle himself, that that institution has the power 
to crush the State banks at its pleasure; that they exist by its 
clemency alone, and not because it has not the power to shut 
their doors. The evidences of a disposition to exert that power 
have, for the last few months, been strong and numerous. Have 
we not heard it predicted, Mr. President, from all sides of this 
chamber, that the State banks would be compelled to stop specie 
payments within a short period of time ? Have we not seen the 
bank press calling uj^on the community to make runs upon those 
banks; telling the poor laborer, who had a five-dollar note of 
a State Bank, to call and get the specie for it before it became a 
valueless rag in his pocket. Can these indications have been 
mistaken, sir '? In the State which I have the honor, in part, to 
represent here, I am happy to know that they have not either 
been mistaken or disregarded, and I hope I may not find myself 
mistaken in the belief that the banks of that State are prepared 
to meet the blow intended for them. From the latest advices I 
have received, I am authorized to suppose that they have with- 
drawn from circulation and redeemed from $4,000,000 to 
$5,000,000 of their notes, within the last sixty or seventy days. 
The effect of this extensive curtailment upon the merchants, and, 
indeed, upon all classes of the community, must be severe, but 
self-protection and self-preservation require the course at the 
hands of the banks, and they have no volition. It would be 
madness for them not to prepare for their defense, when they are 
publicly told that this immense moneyed power, with $35,000,000 
of capital at command, is about to aim a deadly blow at them ; 
when they know it has vaunted its power over them, and proved 
upon oath that its forbearance was the tenure by which they held 
their existence. The banks, then, cannot extend themselves 
while this all-powerful enemy stands ready to take the first 
advantage of their exposure, and to push it to their ruin. Sir, is 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 261 

thei'e any other cause for this rapid curtailment, and this close 
defensive position assumed by the State banks ? I know of none. 
There can be none. Thei-e is no peculiar demand for specie grow- 
ing out of the state of trade, and the condition of exchange; but, 
on the contrary, the reverse is, to a greater extent, true, than it 
has been at any former period of our history. Specie is, at this 
moment, abundant in the country, and its flow is to, and not 
from us. 

" I cannot, then, be mistaken, when I say that if the Bank of the 
United States would cease its efforts for, and its hopes of a 
re-existence, and would endeavor to perform its duty to the 
country, by closing its affairs with as little injury as possible to 
any individual or public interest, the State banks would be able 
to extend their loans, confidence would be restored, and the 
pressure upon the money market would soon cease. Apprehen- 
sion, a just apprehension of the hostile movements of this great 
institution, is the most powerful cause of the present scarcity of 
money. This scarcity must exist so long as this apprehension 
continues. How, then, is it to be allayed, would seem to be the 
pertinent inquiry. The honorable Senator from Massachusetts 
answers us by the bill upon your table. Plecharter the bank ; 
appease the monster by prolonging its existence and increasing 
its power. I say no, sir; but act promptly and refuse its wish ; 
destroy its hope of a recharter, and you destroy its inducement 
to be hostile to the State institutions. A different interest, the 
interest of its stockholders, to wind up its affairs as profitably to 
themselves as possible, becomes its ruling object, and will direct 
its policy. The more prosperous the country, the more plenty the 
money of other institutions, the more easily and safely can this 
object be accomplished ; and every hope of a continued exist- 
ence being destroyed, that this will be the object of the bank is 
as certain as that its moneyed interest governs a moneyed incor- 
poration. Mr. President, this is unquestionably the opinion of 
the country. Look, sir, at the files of memorials upon your 
table, and however widely they may differ as to their views of 
the bank, they all hold to you this language, ' act speedily, and 
finally settle the question.' 

" But we are told, sir, that the country cannot sustain the wind- 



262 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

ing up of the affairs of this bank. Is this so ? What does experi- 
ence teach us upon this subject ? The old bank of the United 
States, within four months of the close of its charter, was more 
extended in proportion to the amount of its capital than the 
present bank is at this moment, and still it is almost two years to 
the close of its charter. The old bank strusaled as this does for 
a re-existence ; the country was then alarmed ; memorials in 
favor of the bank were then as now piled upon the tables of the 
members of Congress; the cries of distress rung through these 
halls then as distinctly as they now do ; nay, more, gentlemen 
were then sent hei'e from the commercial cities to be examined 
upon oath, before the committees of Congress, to prove the exist- 
ence and the extent of the distress ; business was then in a state 
of the utmost depression in all parts of the Union ; commerce 
was literally suspended by the restrictive measures of the govern- 
ment ; trade was dull beyond any former example ; property of 
all kinds was unusually depressed in price ; and the country was 
on the eve of a war with the most powerful nation in the world. 
Still Congress was unmoved and the old bank was not rechartered. 
Such is the history of that period, and, with the final action of 
Congress, all knowledge of the distress ceased. Who has ever 
heard of disasters to the business of the country proceeding from 
winding i;p of the old bank? I, sir, can find no trace of any 
such consequences. I do find that, in a period of about eighteen 
months after the expiration of the charter, the bank disposed of 
its other obligations and divided to its stockholders about eighty- 
eight per cent upon their stock. 

"It is now admitted, on all hands, that the country is rich and 
prosperous in an unusual degree ; property of all kinds is abun- 
dant; commerce is free and extensive,' and flourishing, and business 
of every description is healthful and vigorous. If then we cannot, 
in this condition of things, sustain the closing of the affairs of 
this great moneyed incorporation, it is safe to assume that the 
country will never see the time when it can do it. Grant it longer 
life and deeper root, and in vain shall we try, in future, to shake 
it from us. It will dictate its own terms and command its own 
existence. Indeed, Mr. President, the whole tendency of the 
honorable Senator's argument seemed to me to be, to prove the 



Life and Times of Sjlas Weight. 263 

necessity of a perpetual bank of this description, and we have 
been repeatedly told, during the debate of the last three months, 
that this free, and rich, and prosperous country, cannot get on 
without a great moneyed power of this description to regulate 
its affairs. The bill before the Senate proposes to repeal the 
monopolizing provisions in the existing charter, and the honorable 
Senator tells us that this is to be done, that Congress may, within 
the six years over which this is to extend the life of the present 
bank, establish a new bank to take its place, and into which the 
affairs of the old may be transferred so as to be finally closed 
without a shock to the country. Sir, this is not the relief I seek. 
My object is the entire discontinuance and eradication of this or 
any similar institution. We are told the distresses of the 
country will not permit this now. When, sir, will it ever permit 
it better ? When will the time come that this odious institution 
can be finally closed with less distress than now ? Never, while 
cupidity obeys its fixed laws. 

" This distress, Mr, President, did not exist when we left our 
homes ; we heard not of it then ; it commenced with the com- 
mencement of our debates here, and I doubt not it will end when 
our debates end, and our final action is known, whatever may be 
the result to which we shall arrive. It must necessarily be tem- 
porary, and it does not prove to my mind the necessity of a bank, 
but the mischiefs a bank may produce. I care not whether it be, 
or be not, in the power of the bank to ameliorate the evils now 
complained of. That it can cause them in any manner, is proof 
that, if the disposition exists, it can cause them at pleasure ; and 
this very fact is the strongest evidence, to my mind, that no insti- 
tution, with such a power, ought to exist in this country. 

" Sir, the subject of our present action involves two great prin- 
ciples: one of constitutional power, and one of governmental 
expediency. Upon neither should our action be governed solely 
by considerations of temporary derangement and distress in 
the money market. Revulsions in trade and business, and in pecu- 
niary affairs, will happen. They must be temporary ; the country 
will restore itself, and money will again be plenty ; but the set- 
tlement of important principles must involve consequences of an 
endurit>g character, consequences which will exert an influence, for 
good or for evil, through all time." 



264 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter XLVIII. 

DEFENSE OF GENERAL JACKSON'S PROTEST. 

The Senate had passed resolutions on the 28th of March, 
1834, condemning Gen. Jackson for the removal of the 
deposits from the Bank of the United States, and on the 
fifteenth of April he sent to the Senate a protest against 
their power to sit in judgment upon his conduct and their 
proceedings to condemn him unheard. The friends of 
the bank objected to receiving the protest and entering it 
uj^on the Senate journal, claiming that the protest was a 
breach of the privileges of the Senate. The motion 
against receiving and recording it was carried by a vote 
of 27 in its favor. 

On the 5tli of May, 1834, Mr. Weight thus addressed 
the Senate : 

" Mr. Wright arose and said, he had to thank the Senate for its 
indulgence in permitting him now to extricate himself from the 
unpleasant position in which he had, for several days, been 
placed in relation to the pi'esent debate. When he obtained the 
floor, four days ago, his jjrincipal and almost only object was to 
I'eply to some of the remarks which had on that day been made 
by the honorable Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay]. Although 
time had been given to him for further reflection, he still could 
not consider it his duty materially to alter that course. The 
proceedings of the morning had evinced to him a strong disposi- 
tion in the Senate to close the debate, and he hoped not to occupy 
so much of their time as to show any other inclination. In 
answer to a suggestion which had fallen from some honorable 
Senator in the course of the morning, he believed he could say 
that the time which had elapsed since he had been entitled to the 
floor would not induce him to extend his remarks, or to make a 
larger draft upon the time of the body than he should have done 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 265 

if he had been permitted to succeed the honorable Senator more 
immediately. The delay had been unpleasant to him, but he had 
tried to improve it to condense rather than to extend his remarks. 

" The question before the Senate was the disposition which 
should be made, by that body, of the paper upon the table, 
denominated the President's protest. 

"The paper complained that the Senate had passed a sentence 
against the President, in its nature and character judicial, while 
the provisions of the Constitution had not been observed in the 
proceeding. It complained that the Senate had virtually consti- 
tuted itself the impeaching body by the course it had taken, 
whereas the Constitution had conferred the sole power of impeach- 
ment upon the House of Representatives; that it had proceeded 
to final judgment and sentence against the accused, without 
allowing him a trial upon the accusation, or the privilege of being 
heard in his defense; that the laws for the organization of the 
Senate in such cases had not been observed, inasmuch as the 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court had not been called to pre- 
side over its deliberations, and as no ' oath or affirmation ' had 
been administered to the individual Senators, — a qualification 
which the Constitution expressly required to enable them to sit 
in the high court for the trial of impeachments. And it further 
complained that the sentence of the Senate had been pronounced 
and made a perpetual record, by entry upon its journal, without 
having received the vote of two-thirds, required by the Constitu- 
tion to authorize the Senate to enter a judgment of guilty against 
any public officer. 

" Mr. W. said it was not his purpose, at this time, to examine 
the justice of these complaints. Upon a former occasion, and 
when the resolution complained of was before the Senate, he had 
been indulged with the opportunity to submit his views upon all 
the important questions involved in the paper now under consid- 
eration. The deliberate conviction of his own mind then was, 
that the resolution was, and must be considered, judicial in its 
character; that its passage must be held as a final judgment upon 
an impeachment for the oifenses specified in it, and that all the 
moral consequences of such a judgment, upon the officer against 
whom it was directed, might follow its record upon the journal 



266 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

of the Senate. He had not, however, then been fortunate enough 
to convince the majority of the Senate that his positions were 
well taken, and he had no hope that a repetition of that effort 
would be attended with any better success now. Upon a careful 
review of the argument he had then made, he could not promise 
himself that he could mend or strengthen it by a repetition, and 
he would not consume the time of the Senate by an attempt to 
do so. He said he should hold himself excused from the discus- 
sion of these questions upon the present occasion, even if he had 
not attempted to establish them by argument when the resolu- 
tion was under discussion, because the communication of the 
President argued them at large, and, in his humble judgment, 
that paper was its own best defense upon these points. He had 
not heard its material facts impugned, or its reasoning success- 
fully assailed; and surely it was unnecessary for him to attempt 
to defend that which was already sufficiently defended. By any 
attempt to strengthen what seemed to him impregnable, he might 
impair a defense which did not call for his support. 

"Mr. W. said his object would, therefore, be to give to the 
Senate, as concisely as he might, his views of the immediate ques- 
tions presented for their decision, and then to proceed in his 
replies to the honorable Senator from Kentucky. In order, how- 
ever, that the whole subject might be clearly understood, he con- 
sidered it his duty, before he proceeded further, to correct one 
mistake which several gentlemen seemed to have fallen into at the 
early part of the discussion. He referred more particularly to 
both the honorable Senators from New Jersey, because their 
remarks were more clearly impressed upon his memory. They 
had spoken of the protest as embracing and complaining of the 
passage of both the resolutions offered by the honorable member 
from Kentucky. This was a mistake of fact, important in its 
bearing upon the discussion. It had been seen, upon the first 
appearance of the paper, that it was important to those who had 
sustained the resolution complained of, to show that it was con- 
nected with the legislation of the Senate, and was calculated to 
lead to legislative action. In their ardor to show this, gentlemen 
had carelessly blended the two resolutions, and had discussed the 
communication of tlie President as referrino- to both. This was 



o 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 267 

not so. One of the resolutions merely pronounced upon the 
official conduct of the President, while the other declared the 
reasons of the Secretary of the Treasury for the change of the 
public deposits from the Bank of the United States to the State 
banks ' unsatisfactory and insufficient,' in the judgment of the 
Senate. The latter resolution might lead to legislation, and, per- 
haps, was calculated to do so ; for, if the reasons for the change 
of the deposits were considered unsatisfactory, the Senate might 
consider it proper to originate a law or joint resolution directing 
their restoration. This would be within the conceded jurisdic- 
tion of the Senate ; and he had not heard that either the Presi- 
dent or any one else denied the power of the Senate to take that 
course, or the propriety of its doing so. The protest, surely, 
contained no such denial, nor did it contain any reference whatever 
to this last-mentioned resolution. Its complaints were all directed 
to the first ; to that resolution which pronounced the President 
guilty of unconstitutional and illegal acts, without any reference 
to legislation. The paper left no room for misconception or 
mistake upon this point, for it recited at length the resolution to 
which alone it referred. He must, therefore, insist that this 
point should be clearly understood hereafter; and that the Presi- 
dent's communication should not be either condemned or pro- 
nounced erroneous and false for complaining of an act of the 
Senate to which it did not contain the most remote reference. 
The resolutions were entirely independent of each other, and 
contained expressions of opinion upon separate and entirely 
independent subjects ; and the President had only complained of 
that one Avhich criminated him. Of that which simply pro- 
nounced upon the reasons of the Secretary he had said nothing. 

" The points presented for the decision of the Senate, as the 
subject presented itself to his mind, Mr. W. said, were three : 

" 1st. Had the President a right to send the protest to the 
Senate? 

" 2d. Is it the duty of the Senate to receive it ? 

" 3d. Is it the duty of the Senate to enter it upon its journal? 

" Mr. W. said, in the course of the debate frequent reference 
had been made to the duty of the President, found in the Con- 
stitution in the following words : 



268 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

"'He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information of the 
state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as 
he shall judge necessary and expedient.' 

" And the question had been confidently asked, and more confi- 
dently repeated, ' Where is the authority in this provision of the 
Constitution for the President to send to the Senate a paper of 
this character?' He did not consider the communication now 
under discussion as having any relation whatever to the clause of 
the Constitution he had just read. It was not, in any sense, a 
communication giving ' information of the state of the Union,' 
nor did it recommend any measure to the consideration of Con- 
gress, nor was it a communication to Congress of any description. 
It was a communication to the Senate alone, simply remonstrating 
against a proceeding of that body condemning the ofticial conduct 
of the President, and pronouncing him guilty of an impeachable 
offense. Mr. W. said he did not know that his views upon this 
point were correct, but he considered the right of the President 
to make this communication the same which every citizen of 
the United States possessed by the Constitution to address either 
or both Houses of Congress in a respectful manner, upon any 
subject in which his individual or official rights and interests are 
involved. What, said Mr. W., is the character of the com- 
munication before us ? It states that a proceeding of the Senate 
has infringed upon the constitutional rights of the executive 
branch of the government ; that we have pronounced the Presi- 
dent, as such, guilty of an impeachable offense, and have thus 
visited upon his character and fame the moral effects, so far as 
our pronunciation may have weight, of a conviction for a high 
crime, although the legal consequences of a regular sentence, 
after a trial upon an impeachment, do not follow. Hence 
he feels himself aggrieved, both personally and officially, and 
he sends to us his remonstrance and protest against the injury. 
This is the paper, conceded on all hands to be respectful in 
its language and manner, and addressed to the justice of the 
body which has inflicted the injury. That any private citizen, 
who might feel himself aggrieved by the action of the Senate, 
would possess the right thus to remonstrate, will not be denied ; 
and has the President lost that right because he happens to hold 



LiFh: AND Times of Silas Wright. 269 

the lirst oiFice in the gift of the people? Is the possession of a 
public office to deprive the citizen of his constitutional right to 
protect his public and private character, or even of the humble 
rio-ht of complaint, when he shall consider his character and acts 
unjustly assailed ? He, Mr. W., did not understand that any such 
limitation to the right of petition or remonstrance had been pre- 
scribed by the Constitution ; he had not been able to find any 
such disability annexed to the possession of an honorable and 
responsible office, and he called upon honorable Senators to pause 
and reflect before they attempted, by their action in this instance, 
to establish a rule which might not only bind themselves, but 
take from them one of their most dear and invaluable rights. 
This was his view of the right of the President to send this 
paper to the Senate, and he could not but consider it as clear 
and indisputable as the right of any citizen of the country to 
petition the Senate for any purpose whatsoever. 

" Is it, then, the duty of the Senate to receive the paper? His 
answer to this question was, that the duty of the Senate, as to 
the receipt of this paper, is the same with its duty as to the 
receipt of any petition or remonstrance, respectful in its language 
and manner, and addressed to the bod)^ He could see no possi- 
ble distinction ; and surely, if he had succeeded in establishing 
the right of the President to send the paper to the Senate, upon 
the ground upon which he had put that right, there could be no 
distinction. Either was the constitutional right of the citizen; 
and that the injury complained of in this instance had a double 
bearing — that the President's character, in an official as well as in 
a private sense, had been unjustly assailed and deeply injured, 
and that the remonstrance and protest reached and exposed the 
injury in both respects — could not affect the right to present the 
paper, or the duty of the Senate to receive it when presented. 
Mr. W. said he had already remarked that the communication was 
admitted upon all sides to be respectful in its language and 
manner, and he would not anticipate any objection to its receipt, 
founded upon exceptions in these particulars, so long as no such 
exceptions had been taken. His acquaintance with parliamentary 
rules was very limited ; but he did understand it to be the duty of 
every legislative body, especially of the legislative bodies of this 



270 Life and Times of Silas Wuianr. 

country, to receive every petition and remonstrance, addressed to 
them in language respectful to the body and to its individual 
members, and, until this character should be denied to the paper 
before the Senate, he must consider it the imperative duty of the 
Senate to receive it. 

" This, Mr. W. said, brought him to his third point : Is it the 
duty of the Senate to enter the protest of the President upon its 
journal ? This question he considered addressed itself to the jus- 
tice of the Senate, and the entry of the paper upon the journal 
became a duty or not, as the Senate she aid or should not think 
its entry there an act of justice to itself and to the individual 
from whom it came. For himself, he could entertain no doubt that 
justice to the President, to the Senate and to the public, required 
that it should be made a perpetual record, by an entry upon the 
journal. The Senate had entered upon that journal, and pro- 
nounced to the world, the high charge against the President of a 
violation of the Constitution and laAvs. They had not given to 
the President any opportunity to ofter his defense to their 
accusations, but, without notice to him, they had made them a 
part of their recorded proceedings ; and their journal, laid upon 
his table, and showing to him his conviction, was his only notice 
of their action. Feeling aggrieved personally and officially by 
the sentence itself, which he considers unjust, and by the manner 
in which it was pronounced, without notice to him, and without 
any opportunity on his part to defend himself, and, by exhibiting 
the truth, to defeat a conviction, he now makes this communica- 
tion, setting forth the injustice of the proceeding of the Senate 
toward him, and presenting his defense to the charges made 
against him, so far as any such charges have been specifically set 
fortji. This, his defense and exculpation, he respectfully requests 
maybe entered upon the same journal ujDon which the Senate has 
recorded his guilt, in order that the record, which carries down 
to future ages the resolution condemning him, may carry along 
with it his justification. Is not the request a reasonable one ? Is 
it not an act of duty to the high officer accused that he should 
thus be permitted to perpetuate his defense against an irregular 
and informal condemnation by the Senate ? Is it not just to the 
President that his defense should be spread upon our journal by 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 271 

the side of that condemnation which we have voluntarily 
pronounced against him, and that both should be embraced in 
the same record, and be thus left together for the inspection an<l 
judgment of our successors and the public? It is said, as a 
reason for refusing this communication a place upon the journal 
of the Senate, that the President has no right to demand its entry 
there. Sir, said Mr. W., he has made no such demand ; he 
claims no right to make such a demand ; he merely requests, 
respectfully requests, us to permit its being thus entered, to the 
end that in all future time the journal may exhibit the whole 
case. This request is a full admission, if one were needed, that 
the President makes no claim of right to have this paper spread 
upon our journal. Was ever such a request found in those 
communications which the President makes to Congress undei- the 
clause of the Constitution before quoted ? Certainly not ; and 
this simple fact shows most conclusively that the President did 
not consider this communication as coming at all within the class 
of communications there mentioned, or as made by virtue of the 
power there given, or rather the duty there imposed upon him. 
He sends his paper to the Senate as his personal and official 
defense against a personal and official accusation which we have 
entered upon our journal, and he asks of our justice, what he 
does not claim as a right, that we shall give the same perpetuity 
and publicity to his defense which we have given to our charges. 
It is further said, as a reason both for refusing to enter the 
communication upon our journal, and for refusing even to receive 
it, that it is in itself a breach of the privileges of the Senate. 
Mr. W. said he was little, very little acquainted with this doctrine 
of ' the privileges of Parliament.' He had never found it either 
pleasant or profitable to himself to study the doctrine, and after 
the examples given to the Senate, but a few days since, by the 
honorable Senator from Illinois [Mr. Kane], of the odious and 
disgusting ceremonies gravely practiced by a British House of 
Commons, by way of punishment for breaches of the ' privileges ' 
of that legislative body, he felt sure that the Senate of the 
United States would not find its attachment to parliamentary 
privileges strengthened. Still, British precedents had been cited 
to justify the course which was proposed for the Senate in rela- 



272 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

tion to this message from the President. So far as he had heard 
these precedents read, and so far as he had been able to examine 
them in the course of his partial research, he believed them all to 
be wholly inapplicable to the case before the Senate. They are 
all cases of communications from the Crown to the one or the 
other House of Parliament, pending some legislative action, and 
designed to influence that action. They are not complaints of 
individual injustice to the Prince, or of encroachments upon the 
powers and rights of the executive ; but they are attempts on 
the part of the Crown to dictate to the Legislature its course of 
legislative action. Such is not the case before the Senate. Here 
is no effort to influence the action of the Senate, or the votes of 
Senators, for the votes had been given and the action was com- 
plete weeks before the communication came to the Senate. The 
communication relates to an act of the Senate, not legislative, 
but judicial in its nature and character, and the gravamen of the 
complaint is that the action had been completed and the sentence 
c«f the Senate passed without notice to the President, who Avas 
the accused oflicer, and without allowing him to be heard in his 
defense. Were it otherwise ; had the President made a com- 
munication of this character to the Senate while the resolution 
comi:)lained of was before the body, and not definitely acted 
upon ; and had the complaint then been made of an attempt by 
the President to influence the action of the Senate, it would have 
seemed to be worthy of some attention. But surely this objec- 
tion comes too late, when our votes are recorded, our resolution 
adopted, and our action not only completed but passed beyond 
our power of recall. The paper before us is not designed to 
influence our action, but to show that we have acted unlawfully 
and unjustly, and have thereby deprived a distinguished citizen, 
and the highest oflicer in the government, of his constitutional 
and legal rights. 

"But, said Mr. W., without dwelling longer upon this topic, 
let me caution gentlemen not to place too much reliance upon 
English precedents as being applicable to the legislative bodies of 
this country. We have written Constitutions, defining the rights 
and limiting the powers of all the departments of government. 
How is it in England ? What is the Constitution of the govern- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 273 

ment of Great Britain ? It is the will of Parliament. What 
are the ' privileges ' of the British Parliament? They are the 
will of the British Parliament. Mr. W. said he believed that 
one of the highest courts in the kingdom had uniformly decided 
that it was incompetent for that court to adjudge what was 
and what was not a ' privilege ' of Parliament, because the ' privi- 
leges of Parliament ' were the will and pleasure of Parliament. 
Would any one contend that the privileges of the Congress 
of the United States are the will of the Congress of the United 
States ? That the privileges of the Senate are the will of the 
Senate? Surely not; and how, then, can the decisions of the 
British Parliament, as to questions of 'privilege,' form safe 
precedents for the Congress of the United States ? The power 
of the Parliament over the subject is supreme, and any deci- 
sion it may please to make is the paramount law of the case. 
The power of Congress is confined to the specific grants of 
power to be found in the Constitution of the United States, and 
neither it nor either of its branches can claim privileges in 
contravention of that instrument, and of the constitutional 
rights of the citizen. Mr, W. said he could not consider British 
precedents upon the subject of parliamentary privilege as deserv- 
ing of much weight when attempted to be applied to our 
institutions. He rather considered them as dangerous guides, 
calculated to mislead us in the rigid construction of our consti- 
tutional privileges, and to draw us towards those parliamentary 
claims which have proved the most dangerous to civil liberty — 
the claims of unrestrained legislative will as the measure of 
legislative privilege. Mr. W. said he knew of no privilege of 
the Senate, and he certainly was not conscious that any privilege 
of his own was violated by the protest; and he considered it not 
less the duty of the Senate than an act of justice to the President 
that it should be entered at length upon the journal, to remain 
forever with the high accusation to which it was an answer. 

" Other precedents, Mr. W. said, had been cited for another 
purpose, drawn from the acts of tlie Senate itself. Reference 
had been made to the proceedings of the celebrated Panama 
mission, a leading measure of the late administration; and he 
understood the object of the reference to be to justify the Senate 
18 



274 Life and Times of Stlas Wright. 

in the passage of the resolution of which the protest complained. 
He felt it to be his duty to examine these precedents, because he 
was convinced that they would be found to have no possible 
api^lication to that proceeding which they were adduced to jus- 
tify. The cases would be seen to be wholly unlike in every 
material particular, and to exhibit no analogy and resemblance 
other than that which may be imagined between the views of 
the judge as to what the law is, wholly disconnected from any 
consideration of an act done or crime committed, and the opinion 
of that same judge, judicially pronounced, passing sentence of 
condemnation upon a culprit for a violation of that law. Even 
this resemblance, if it deserved that appellation, could only be 
traced between the case now under discussion and the first pre- 
cedent cited. Between the present question and the latter prece- 
dent relied upon, he was unable to discover any relationship of 
any denomination whatsoever. He would not, however, ask the 
Senate to take his opinions as authority upon the subject, but he 
would detain them while he read the resolutions, that every 
Senator might form his own opinion as to the extent to which 
they were precedents for the iinexampled condemnation which 
had been pronounced upon the official conduct of the President 
by the resolution complained of. He then read from the journal 
of the Senate of 1825-6, page 414, as follows: 

"'Mr. Branch submitted the following motion lor consideration, which 
was read, and ordered to be printed, in confidence, for the use of the mem- 
bers: 

" ' Wlberem, The President of the United States, in his opening message to 
Congress, asserted that " invitations had been accepted, and that ministers 
on the part of the United States would be commissioned to attend the delibe- 
rations at Panama," without submitting said nominations to the Senate; and 
whereas, in an executive communication of the 26th of December, 1825, 
although he submits the nominations, yet maintains the right, previously 
announced in his opening message, that he possesses an authority to make 
such appointments, and to commission them without the advice and consent 
of the Senate; and whereas a silent acquiescence on the part of this body 
may, at some future time, be drawn into dangerous precedent; therefore, 

'''Eesolved, That the President of the United States does not constitution- 
ally possess cither the right or the power to appoint ambassadors or other 
public ministers, but with the advice and consent of the Senate, except 
v/hen vacancies may happen in the recess.' 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 275 

"This, said Mr. W,, is the first precedent relied upon in tlie 
practice of the Senate; and what is it? The President asserts a 
power as constitutionally resting in his hands, but does not 
attempt its exercise. On the contrary, he does what the resolu- 
tion declares he should do, and makes to the Senate the very 
nominations which the resolution declares should be made to 
that body before commissions issue; but in the communication 
transmitting the nominations he is understood to reassert the 
right to issue the commissions without first having obtained the 
advice and consent of the Senate. For over-caution, and lest 
the silence of the Senate might be held an acquiescence in the 
assertion of power made by the President, and lest that assertion 
and silence might, ' at some future time, be drawn into dangerous 
precedent,' the resolution is offered, counteracting the assertion 
of power made by the President. No ofticial act of the Presi- 
dent is complained of, but merely the assertion of an opinion 
which the mover of the resolution held to be erroneous, and con- 
trary to the constitutional powers conferred upon the President. 
It is worthy of particular remark that no vote of the Senate 
appears ever to have been taken upon the resolution; and, there- 
fore, it goes no farther as a precedent than that it Avas offered 
by an individual member of the Senate, received, and entered 
upon the journal, but never acted upon, adopted, or in any other 
way made the act of the Senate. As has been before remarked, 
the resolution refers to no act of the President, ofiicial or unofti- 
cial, other than an expression of an opinion as to his constitu- 
tional powers in the appointment and commissioning of foreign 
ministers. It neither answers nor condemns any act of the 
President, official or unofficial, but merely pronounces an opinion 
upon the point involved, contraiy to the opinion entertained and 
expressed by the President, but never acted upon; and all the 
record shows is, that the then President believed he had the 
right, without the advice and consent of the Senate, to commis- 
sion ministers to represent this government abroad, and at places 
and in relations where no such representatives of the government 
had before existed, and tlie Senator who offered the resolution 
did not believe that he possessed any such power. So much for 
the first precedent cited from our own authority to sustain the 



276 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

action of the Senate in condemning, without trial, the President 
of the United States for his official acts. 

" Mr. W. then read from the same journal, page 461, as follows: 

"'A motion was made by Mr. Van Buren to amend the resolution by 
adding thereto the following : 

" 'Resolved, That the Constitution of tlie United States, in authorizing the 
President of the United States to nominate, and, by the advice and consent 
of the Senate, appoint " ambassadors and other public ministers," authorizes 
the nomination and appointment to offices of a diplomatic character only, 
existing by virtue of international laws, and does not authorize the nomina- 
tion and appointment (under the name of ministers) of representatives to an 
assembly of nations, lilie the proposed Congress of Panama, who, from the 
nature of their appointment, must be mere deputies, unknown to the law of 
nations, and without diplomatic character or privilege. 

" 'Resolved, That the power of forming or entering (in any manner what- 
ever) into new political associations or confederacies belongs to the people 
of the United States, in their sovereign character, being one of the powers 
which, not having been delegated to the government, are reserved to the 
States or people; and that it is not within the constitutional power of the 
federal government to appoint deputies, or representatives of any descrip- 
tion, to represent the United States in tlie Congress of Panama, or to partici- 
pate in the deliberation or discussion or recommendation or acts of that 
congress. 

" 'Resolved, As the opinion of the Senate, that (waiving the question of 
constitutional power) the appointment of deputies to the Congress of Panama 
by the United States, according to the invitation given, and its conditional 
acceptance, would be a departure from that wise and settled policy by 
which the intercourse of the United States with foreign nations has hitherto 
been regulated, and may endanger the friendly relations which now happily 
exist between us and the Spanish- American States, by creating expectations 
that engagements wdll be entered into by us, at that congress, which the 
Senate could not ratify, and of which the people of the United States would 
not approve. 

" 'Resolved, That the advantages of the proposed mission to the Congress 
of Panama, if attainable, would, in the opinion of the Senate, be better 
obtained, without such hazard, by the attendance of one of our present 
ministers near either of the Spanish governments, authorized to express the 
deep interest we feel in their prosperity, and instructed fully to explain 
(when requested) the great principles of our policy, but without being a 
member of that congress, and without power to commit the United States 
to any stipulated mode of enforcing those principles, in any supposed or 
possible state of the world.' 

"This, Mr. W. said, Avas the second precedent relied upon, and 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 277 

from which quotations had been made, to sustain the resolution 
of the Senate of which the President compLains in the protest. 
What is this authority ? The resohitions deny the constitutional 
power of the President and Senate, under the authority given in 
that instrument, to appoint ' ambassadors and other public minis- 
ters,' to appoint representatives to a congress of nations, and 
assert that the character of such representatives would not be 
diplomatic, and that the persons appointed would not be entitled 
to diplomatic privileges; that the federal government, in all its 
branches, does not possess the constitutional power to enter into 
political associations and confederacies, new in their character, 
and unknown to the country, but that this is one of the powers 
reserved to the States or to the people; that the appointment of 
deputies to represent the United States in the proposed congress 
of nations at Panama would be a departure from the wise policj^ 
heretofore pursued by the government in its intercourse with 
foreign nations, and might endanger the friendly relations at the 
time existing between the United States and the Spanish-Ameri- 
can States; and that all the valuable purposes of the proposed 
mission, or representation, might be better attained through the 
agency of some one of our diplomatic agents near those States. 
This is the substance of the four resolutions; and do they assume 
to condemn the official acts of the then President ? Do they even 
assume to deny to him constitutional powers which they do not, 
at the same time, deny to the Senate itself, and to every other 
branch of the government ? Mr. W. said he did not so under- 
stand them, and he had been wholly unable to trace the most 
remote analogy between these resolutions and that sentence of 
the Senate pronounced against the official acts of the President 
which they had been referred to to sustain. When these resolu- 
tions were offered to the Senate no effective act had been per- 
formed by any department of the government. Tlie President 
had nominated what he called ministers to attend the congress 
of nations at Panama, but he had not attempted to commission 
and despatch them without the advice and consent of the Senate; 
and it was upon the question of giving this advice and consent 
that these resolutions, as well as that one which constituted the 
first precedent quoted, were offered to the attention of the Sen- 



278 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

ate. The questions involved in both were those of constitutional 
power in some one or in all of the departments of the government, 
or questions of political expediency, as connected with the wise 
and safe administration of our foreign relations. No official act 
of any officer of the government, or of any department of the 
government, was either alluded to or proposed to be censured 
or condemned. The whole contest, in both cases, was one of 
opinion merely, and not of action; and, whichever way it should 
have resulted, no officer or department of the government was 
either impeached or condemned for acts in violation of the Con- 
stitution and laws. It is also a fact worthy of remark, and not 
to be overlooked, that these last resolutions were expressly 
rejected by the Senate, by a single vote taken upon the whole. 

" Such, Mr. W. said, had been the success of the powerful 
advocates of the proceeding of the Senate in condemnation of 
the President, in their attempts to support, by precedent drawn 
from our own parliamentary history, the action of this body. 
Might he not, witliout injustice to any one, assume that p. pro- 
ceeding so novel, and which found such very slender supports, 
or rather such entire want of support from any former expression 
ever offered to either branch of Congress, must be, at least, 
doubtful as to either its legislative, executive or judicial pro- 
priety ? He must be permitted to think that, whichever char- 
acter should be claimed for this resolution of the Senate, it 
would be found equally indefensible in principle and precedent. 

" Mr. W. said it now remained for liim to reply, as briefly as 
possible, to some of the remarks of the honorable Senator from 
Kentucky [Mr. Clay], and, having done so, he would relieve the 
Senate from hearing him further. 

"The honorable Senator told us, and I was somewhat surprised 
that he had been able to convince himself that such was the fact, 
that the advocates of the resolution uniformly avoided speaking 
of the motives of the President. Had the honorable gentleman 
forgotten that in almost the first sentence of his address, on 
opening the debate, he pronounced to the Senate and the country 
that the President was attempting to grasp all the powers of this 
government into his single hand ? Had he forgotten how fre- 
quently that officer of the government was, during the course of 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 279 

this debate, termed a despot, a usurper, a military chieftain; how 
often the hai'sh term of a ' robbery of the public treasury ' was 
applied to the act of the removal of the deposits'? [Here Mr. 
Clay explained. He said he did not intend to refer to the 
debates, in his remarks in relation to the President's motives; 
that what he had intended to say Avas, that the resolution con- 
tained no imj^utation iipon his motives.] Mr. Weight said he 
would accept the gentleman's explanation; for he felt sure, at 
the time he heard the remark, that it was not intended in its 
literal sense. The gentleman used the term ' advocates,' from 
which Mr. W. inferred that he alluded to the debates; but as his 
explanation seemed to admit that, in the debates upon the I'eso- 
lution, the motives of the President were not permitted to escape 
accusation, he would consider the remark as applied to the resolu- 
tion itself. And what, said Mr. W., is the resolution, as it stands 
upon the journal '? Is it merely an accusation, an indictment, an 
article of impeachment? No, sir. It is a judgment upon an 
accusation. It does not accuse; but assuming all anterior pro- 
ceedings, it convicts. In vain, then, do gentlemen tell us that it 
does not, in its terms, refer to the motives of the President, and 
that an impeachment must accompany an accusation of crime, 
with an allegation of a corrupt or wicked intent. The position 
was true as to indictments, and might be true as to impeachments, 
though Mr. W. believed the allegation of wicked intent was not 
indispensable in the latter; but however that might be, no one 
would contend that any reference to the intention of the defendant 
is ever made in the entry upon the record of a criminal judgment. 
That entry merely pronounces the accused guilty of the crime, 
charged in the most general language ; and the judgment thus 
entered carries with it, by necessary implication, all that is 
required to sustain itself. It relates back to the proceedings ante- 
rior to the judgment for the form of accusation, the allegations 
of intention, and all else which should have existed to sustain 
the judgment, and, in the absence of those proceedings, the entry 
of the judgment simply must be held as the strongest prima 
facie evidence that those preliminary proceedings were regular 
and sufficient. Such, Mr. W. said, was the light in which he 
viewed the resolution of the Senate. It pronounced the judg- 



280 Life and Times of Silas WinoHT. 

ment of a majority of the Senate upon an impeachable offense 
charcred against the President. This pronunciation of a judg- 
ment of guilty was the only entry upon record, and that entry 
must, of necessity, carry with it the unavoidable implication of 
all the preliminary proceedings requisite to authorize the judg- 
ment to be so entered. Who, then, could say that the protest 
was wrontr in thus stating the case ? And who Avill say that the 
President was wrong in complaining of and protesting against 
this conviction, to whom it shall be known that no preliminary 
proceedings whatever were had ; that no accusation was ever 
made, and that this general entry of a judgment of condemnation 
is the only step ever taken? Mr. W. said, if there were no 
oilier reason for entering the protest upon the journal of the 
Senate, this consideration alone, in his judgment, made it their 
imperious duty so to enter it, as an act of sheer justice to the 
President, because, without it, the journal would not show the 
true history of the transaction, and would not, therefore, be stript 
of the unjnst, and, as it would seem from the remarks of gentle- 
men in the debate, unintended implication to which he had 
alluded. 

" Mr. President, said Mr. W., I was much pleased when the 
honorable Senator told us that this message of the President 
ought to be diffused; that he hoped a copy of it would reach 
the hands, and meet the eye and careful perusal of every man, 
woman and child in the country ; and that he would gladly con- 
tribute from his own private means to give it circulation. I 
agree with him fully in this opinion and this wish; but, judging 
from the character and tendency of his remarks, we must have 
come to a like conclusion from very different views of the paper, 
and of the effects to be produced upon the public mind by its 
extended distribution. I think it eminently calculated to justify 
not only the motives but the acts of the President with the pub- 
lic; to arouse the public attention to the dangerous, and, as I 
think, unconstitutional exercise of power by this body, in their 
late condemnation of the President, without an impeachment, 
and without a trial; and to extend the popularity of that worthy 
public servant, and strengthen the salutary principles of his 
administration. The honorable Senator must suppose that effects, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 281 

precisely the reverse of these, will be produced by the circula- 
tion of this message, or, surely, he would not voluntarily contri- 
bute to its circulation. He, no doubt, thinks that the paper is 
calculated to produce a belief in the existence of those alarming 
encroachments of executive power against which he so frequently 
and so eloquently warns us. But whether the honorable Senator 
or myself be correct in our impressions as to the effect to be pro- 
duced by the circulation of the message, so long as we both agree 
that important and salutary purposes would be accomplished by 
its universal distribution, ought we not also to agree upon the 
propriety and duty of making so important a paper, and from 
the reading of which we anticipate so important consequences, 
a matter of perpetual record upon our journal ? I appeal to the 
lionorable Senator to say whether the consequence he has him- 
self attached to the message does not show that it ought to be 
perpetuated as a part of our national history. If it contain 
evidence of executive encroachments dangerous to our civil insti- 
tutions, ought we not to spread it upon our journal, as a solemn 
warning to all future Presidents against the like attempts ? If it 
unjustly assail the Senate, or any of its members, do we not owe 
it to ourselves and to our constituents to record the aafffression 
and to place our answer and defense by its side? On the other 
hand, if, as I suppose, the Senate have encroached upon the con- 
stitutional rights of the executive, and the message exposes the 
violation of our powers, are we not bound, in strict justice to the 
President, to give the exposition a place upon the same record 
which contains our violation ? In any sense, Mr. W. said, in 
Avhich he could view the subject, the message ought to be entered 
upon the journal; and he was at a loss to know how gentlemen 
were able to reconcile it to their feelings to pronounce the paper 
important, and its wide circulation useful and desirable, and then 
contend that it ought not to be thus perpetuated. They could 
not desire to fix upon it this mark of the disapprobation of the 
Senate, to precede its circulation among the people. They could 
not fear its effects in the hands of our enlightened citizens, unless 
that effect shall be modified by this unfavorable treatment of the 
paper here. He did hope Senators would reflect upon the import- 
ance of the questions involved, and would give the message its 



282 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

place upon the journal of the Senate. But, Mr, President, if the 
Senate shall conclude to refuse the paper an entry upon the 
journal, will they enter upon that journal the resolution before 
you, characterizing and condemning it ? Will they pronounce the 
message unconstitutional, an encroachment of executive power, 
and a breach of the privileges of the Senate, and not let that 
journal show upon what that harsh judgment was formed ? Will 
they compel us to record our names against the resolutions, and 
refuse us an entry of the paper to justify or condemn our course ? 
I hope not. If the message is to be excluded, I do hope that the 
Senate will be content with its exclusion simply; and that, if its 
contents are to be examined for grounds upon which to condemn 
it, the paper itself may be allowed a place by the side of our 
condemning sentence, that all who hereafter read our journal 
may be able to judge between those who approve and those who 
disapprove it. 

" Mr. W. said, the honorable Senator had told us that the 
President had not come here in the humbled and subdued tone 
of a convicted culprit, but in the tone and spirit indicating a 
feeling far above any tribunal of the country. He does not come 
here, sir, in the tone of a criminal or convict, for he is neither ; 
but he comes here in the tone and spirit of an injured man. His 
personal and official rights have been assailed and violated, and 
a sentence has been pronounced against him calculated to have the 
moral influence, upon his character and fame, of a conviction for 
crime, while he has not even been constitutionally accused, much 
less tried or convicted. It is of this he complains. He is not 
resisting a judicial sentence, regularly pronounced, but an effort 
to visit upon him the evil consequences of such a sentence, with- 
out allowing him a trial, and against the positive provisions of 
the Constitution. Should he then come in the subdued spirit of 
a convict ? But where does the Senate find authority for saying 
that the message displays a feeling in the President ' far, far above 
any tribunal of the country ?' To what tribunals of the country 
is the President, as such, legally subject ? To the House of Rep- 
resentatives, by way of impeachment, and to this body by way 
of trial upon such impeachment, and to the great tribunal of the 
people. Has he not in the message expressly recognized and 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 283 

acknowledged his subjection, according to the provisions of the 
Constitution, to the two Houses of Congress ? Is not his com- 
plaint that the provisions of that instrument have not been 
regarded in the late action of the Senate, but that this House of 
Congress has stepped by the other and assumed a jurisdiction not 
conferred upon it by the Constitution ? And is not the message 
itself an appeal to the Senate against its own injustice, and, in 
effect, through the Senate, to the tribunal of public opinion, the 
only tribunal to which an appeal can be taken from the decisions 
of the Senate '? Is it right, then, to say that the President, in his 
message, has exhibited a feeling above the tribunals of the country 
to which he is responsible ? I am sure the Senator's sense of 
justice will show him that he does the President manifest wrong 
in this declaration. 

" The conduct of the President, in sending this j^rotest to the 
Senate, Mr. W. said, had been the subject of severe animadver- 
sion, and the act had been pronounced unprecedented and unau- 
thorized. To rebut these suggestions, the Senator from Illinois 
[Mr. Kane] had presented a precedent from the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania, which was supposed strongly to support the course 
pursued by the President upon this occasion. The honorable 
Senator from Kentucky had commented upon the Pennsylvania 
case, and seemed to have satisfied liimself that it did not go, in 
any degree, to support the communication of the President now 
before the Senate, and the request accompanying it, that it should 
be entered upon the journal. Mr. W. said it would be his duty 
very briefly to examine the two cases, that the Senate might the 
better determine how far the one would justify the other. He 
had understood the honorable Senator to say that the attempt 
was to impeach Governor McKean, then the Governor of the State 
of Pennsylvania, before the House of Representatives of that 
State, the body possessing, by the State Constitution, the power 
of impeachment ; and that a committee of the House reported 
certain accusations against the Governor, concluding with instruc- 
tions that articles of impeachment should be prepared ; that a 
majority of the House, acting upon the report of the committee, 
negatived the accusations, and refused to order an impeachment; 
that the resolutions, by way of accusation, reported by the com- 



284 Z/Jf^ AND Times of Silas Wright. 

raittee, although negatived by a majority of the House, were 
entered upon its journal in the due course of the action of the 
House upon them; and that, subsequent to the final action of the 
House, the Governor sent to it his defense against the accusations, 
which was received, and ordered to be entered upon the journal, 
that the accusation and defense might remain together as matter 
of record for all succeeding ages. This was the Pennsylvania 
case, as he had understood the honorable Senator to relate it, and 
as he understood the facts to be. What was the case now before 
the Senate ? No attempt had been made to impeach the Presi- 
dent before the House of Representatives, the body alone pos- 
sessing the constitutional power to find an impeachment against 
him ; but the Senate, passing by the action of the House, had 
proceeded in a summary manner, and without impeachment or 
trial, to pass a sentence of condemnation against him for a high 
crime, not assuming to act in its judicial character, as trying an 
impeachment, but in its legislative character, without any prac- 
tical legislative purpose. Against this sentence, thus pronounced, 
the President remonstrates, and sends his remonstrance to the 
Senate, and one of the questions before us is, shall it be entered 
upon the journal ? The Senator says, the case of Governor 
McKean is not an authority in favor of allowing the request of the 
President, because, in that case, there was an unsuccessful attempt 
to impeach, and the majority of the body to which the protest 
was sent justified the conduct of the officer ; whereas here has 
been no attempt to impeach, but the majority of the Senate (the 
judicial tribunal) have condemned without impeachment, and as 
a mere legislative expression. What is the force of this reason- 
ing ? Where an attempt is made to accuse a public officer, which 
attempt is unsuccessful, because the majority of the impeaching 
body think him innocent, and refuse to accuse him, the officer 
shall have the right to defend himself against the unsuccessful 
accusations, and shall be permitted to spread his defense upon 
the same record where the rejected accusations are to be found ; 
but if the body, not authorized to accuse, but judicially to try an 
accusation, shall overstep the accusing power, and pronounce 
their sentence without either accusation or trial, then the officer 
Bhall not be permitted to offer his defense, or to have it made a part 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 285 

of that record which proclaims to the public his condemnation. 
Surely the Senator will not, npon more reflection, contend for so 
inconsistent a rule as this. In the one case the accusation is 
destroyed by the vote of a majority of the body to which it is 
submitted, and then the officer's defense is received and recorded; 
in the other case the sentence of guilty is entered upon its rccoi'd 
by the judicial body, while neither accusation nor trial have pre- 
ceded it, and then the defense is refused a place upon that same 
record. Can any one fail to see that, if the Pennsylvania case 
is good parliamentary authority, the case of the President, in this 
instance, is, in all respects, much stronger. 

" This, Mr. W. said, brought him to the consideration of the 
resolution of the Senate, and of the various changes which it had 
undergone between the time of its introduction and the time when 
the vote of the Senate was taken upon it. The honorable Sena- 
tor had said that ' the President had been declared by the Senate 
to have violated the Constitution and laws, in the particulars 
mentioned in the resolution.' Mr. W. said the remark struck liim 
with peculiar force when it was made, as it appeared to him to 
evince an unchanged purpose in the mind of the Senator, although 
it indicated a forgetf ulness of the material difference between the 
resolution in its present shape, and that resolution which he had 
at first proposed. One of the principal complaints in the protest, 
and one which he, Mr. W., thought entitled to peculiar weiglit, 
grew out of these changes of the resolution, and, that the force 
of that complaint might be accurately understood, he considered 
it his duty to call the attention of the Senate to what the resolu- 
tion was, as introduced, to what it is, as passed, and to its 
progress from the one form to the other. The original resolution 
offered by the honorable Senator was in these words : 

" ' Besolved, That by dismissing the late Secretary of the Treasury, because 
he would not, contrary to liis sense of his own duty, remove the money of 
the United States in deposit with tlie Bank of tlie United States and its 
branches, in conformity with tlie President's opinion, and by appointing 
his successor to effect such removal, which has been done, the President 
has assumed the exercise of a power over the treasury of the United States 
not granted to him by the Constitution and laws, and dangerous to the 
liberties of the people.' 



286 I^IFE AND TUIES OF SiLAS WEIGHT. 

" Here Air. W. said, specific grounds of violation were assigned. 
In this shape of the resolution, the President could know what 
acts of his were complained of. Here, when he was charged with 
a violation of the Constitution and laws, he was told Avherein 
the alleged violations consisted. The removal of the Secretary 
of the Treasury, because he declined to do a specified act, and 
the appointment of a successor to do that act, were the violations 
assigned. In this shape the resolution remained, without an 
intimation that it was to undergo any material change, until after 
the honorable Senator was in the occupation of the floor to make 
a final close of the debate. For full three months the debate 
continued, and was entirely directed to these specified acts of the 
President, the one side laboring to sustain the acts as constitu- 
tional and lawful, and the othei" side attempting, with ecpial per- 
severance, to prove them to be above and beyond the autliority 
conferred upon the President by the Constitution and the law. 
On the morning of the second day of the honorable Senator's 
closing speech, he offered the following, as a modification of the 
original resolution : 

" 'Resolved, Tliat, in taking upon liimself tlie responsibility of removing 
tlic deposits of tlie public money from tlie Bank of tlie United States, the 
President of tlie United States lias assumed the exercise of a power over the 
treasury of the United States not granted to liim by the Constitution and 
laws, and dangerous to the liberties of the people.' 

•' Here was a departure from the point which had been debated, 
and a new fact assumed, upon which the condemnation of the 
President was to rest. This modification charges upon him the 
removal of the deposits, and assigns that act as the assumption 
of a power 'not granted to him by the Constitution and laws, 
and dangerous to the liberties of the people.' Although objec- 
tionable as assuming new ground after the debate had closed, this 
proposition, like the original, pointed to a specific act, and 
assigned that act as the violation charged. After the honorable 
Senator had closed his remarks, and at the moment when the 
question was being stated from the chair, the modification above 
given was withdrawn, and the following was offered in its place, 
and in tlie place of the original resolution: 

Resolved, Tliat the President, in the late executive proceedings in rela- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 287 

tiou to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and power 
not conferred by the Coustitulioii and laws, but in derogation of both.' 

" No question having been taken upon the resolution, it was 
in the power of the mover to modify it at his pleasure, without 
any vote of the Senate, and, by the exercise of that right, on his 
part, it was made to assume the above shape, in which shape it 
w^as adopted by the Senate, as stated in the protest. Mr. W. 
said he considered this last modification of the resolution one of 
the most remarkable and indefensible steps in the proceeding of 
the Senate. Here the President is charged with a violation of 
the Constitution and laws, and no act of his, whatever, is named 
as constituting the violation complained of. The President is 
not informed wherein bis guilt consists, though he is pronounced 
guilty of a high crime, and no man can say what act of his was 
the act which, in the mind of the Senate, constituted the viola- 
tion the resolution pronounces against him. ' The late executive 
proceedings in relation to the public revenue ' is the specification, 
while every one knows that there is not a day when ' executive 
proceedings in relation to the public revenue ' do not take place. 
The President, then, may justify, to the satisfaction of every man 
in the country, every executive act of his official life relating to 
the public revenue, save one, and, be that act wliat it may, he 
stands condemned by this resolution, in consequence of it, of a 
violation of the Constitution and the laws, and it will be compe- 
tent for those who voted for the resolution to assign that act in 
justification of their votes, even though the act itself shall never 
yet have been the subject of attention in the Senate. Are citi- 
zens and high public officers in this free country to be not only 
accused, but condemned, in this blind and general manner ? Is 
the President of the United States, the first officer of the govern- 
ment, to be thus pronounced guilty of a high crime without 
notice and without a trial, and not to be told what acts of his life 
have drawn down upon him the heavy sentence ? When this 
is done, as it has been done by the action of the Senate, is he 
to be denied the poor privilege of complaint, the humble satis- 
faction of pointing out the injustice ? 

Mr. W. said he was well aware that certain acts of the Presi- 
dent were occupying the public attention, as the acts intended to 



288 Ltfe and Times of Silas Wright. 

be condemned by the Senate in the passage of the resolution; 
and that those acts were the removal of the late and the appoint- 
ment of the present Secretary of the Treasury, and the change 
of the deposits by the latter officer; or, if gentlemen please, by 
the President, through him, as his proper subordinate in the per- 
formance of that duty. But will it be now contended that these 
were the acts which influenced the majority of the Senate in the 
passage of the resolution ? The first of those acts, to wit, the 
removal of the one secretary and the appointment of the other, 
were specifically assigned as the acts of violation, in the resolu- 
tion as first offered by the honorable Senator, They remained 
the acts, and the only acts assigned, during the debate of three 
months. At the close of that debate they were withdrawn, 
surely for no other cause than that they would not sustain the , 
conclusion sought to be pronounced. The removal of ' the 
deposits of the public moneys from the Bank of the United 
States,' was then substituted as the act of violation which was to 
constitute the President's guilt. This last act continued to be 
the specification during the closing day of the Senator's closing 
speech, only when it too was found insuflicient to warrant the 
conclusion contained in the resolution, and was withdrawn to 
give place to the last-named modification, containing no other 
indication of the act or acts complained of than ' the late execu- 
tive proceedings in relation to the public revenue;' more properly 
speaking, containing no specification of the act or acts of viola- 
tion. Who can now say what act of the President has been pro- 
nounced by the Senate an assumption of ' authority and power 
not conferred by the Constitution and law, but in derogation of 
both?' Is it the removal of tlie late Secretary of the Treasury 
from office, or the cause for which that removal is said to have 
been made? No; for tliat act audits alleged cause have been 
assigned to support the resolution, and have been Avithdrawn, 
Is it the appointment of the present Secretary of the Treasury, 
with the intention that he should remove the deposits ? No; for 
that act and intention have been assigned to support the resolu- 
tion, and have been withdrawn. Is is both these acts, with the 
cause assigned for the one, and the intention imputed to the 
other? No; for all were assigned together and withdrawn 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 289 

together. Is it the removal of the deposits, and the agency 
which the President had in that removal ? No; for that removal, 
an act, the responsibility of which he is said to have taken upon 
himself, was assigned to support the resolution, and was, on the 
same day, withdrawn. Who, then, can say what act of the 
President has made him guilty of a violation of the law and the 
Constitution? And yet we censure him for complaining that he 
has been condemned without a hearing, and without being- 
informed what has been his offense. 

"Mr. W. said, the honorable Senator had told us that the 
President was the last man in the world who had a right to com- 
plain of the action of the Senate; that he should have left his 
grievances to the redress of public opinion. And is it so ? Is 
the man who finds himself under sentence for a high crime, with- 
out even having known that he had been accused; without having 
been allowed a trial by his peers; without having been heard in 
his defense — the last man in the world who had a right to com- 
plain of the proceeding? Let me, said Mr. W., ask the honorable 
Senator, should he to-day find published to the world a judgment 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, convicting him of a 
high crime, and should that publication be the first notice to him 
that he was even accused, would he permit me to tell him, 'You, 
sir, are the last man in the world who has a right to complain of 
the injustice. True it is, the sentence has gone forth against you, 
and its moral influence visits itself upon your character and 
fame, and upon the reputation and feelings of your family and 
friends ; true it is that the sentence has been passed in direct vio- 
lation of some of the dearest rights secured to you by the Con- 
stitution of your country; but you must not complain ; you must 
leave your grievances to be redressed by public opinion, and you 
must not inform that public that your rights have been thus 
invaded ?' No, Mr. President, the honorable Senator would not 
permit me to address to him this language in the supposed case; 
he would complain, and give his complaints to the public, and I 
feel sure that reflection will convince him that he has laid down 
a rule for the President, in this instance, which he himself Avould 
not observe. 

" Mr. W. said, he considered it proper, in this place, to notice 
19 



290 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

nil :irfument of the honorable Senator, which seemed to liim 
nitlier specious than sound, Ijut which was calculated to mislead 
the public mind. The lionorable gentleman, in his forcible and 
liappy manner, inquired ' if the Senate can pronounce the act of 
the President constitutional, can they not also pronounce that 
same act unconstitutional ?' And having thus shaped his posi- 
tion, he went on to say that the complaint was not that the 
Senate had acted upon the subject and expressed its opinion upon 
the President's official conduct, but that it had pronounced that 
opinion unfavorable. The position, Mr, W. said, was gratuitous, 
and not warranted by anything to be found in the message; and 
that one of the premises taken for granted was distinctly denied, 
and without that the reasoning and conclusion fell to the ground. 
It was not admitted, in a case where an impeachable charge was 
made, that the Senate could pronounce in favor of the officer 
accused, until the presentation of an impeachment enabled it 
to assume its judicial character, and to hear, try and determine 
the questions submitted. Mr. W. said he had, upon a former 
occasion, attempted to establish the position, that a judgment of 
acquittal was as much judicial as a judgment of conviction; and 
hence, that the quo animo of a public officer, charged with a 
violation of the Constitution and law, could not be exatuined 
legislatively, because such an examination, even for the sake of 
excusing the officer from criminal intent, must of necessity be 
judicial. He now repeated the same opinion; and to make it 
more plain to the Senate that exculpatory action in the case sup- 
posed would be a violation of its constitutional powers and 
duties, he would suppose a case growing out of the existing state 
of things. Suppose, then, that the opinion of the two Houses of 
Congress upon the subject of the removal of the public deposits 
were reversed ; that the majority of the Senate believed that the 
executive had discharged his constitutional duty faithfully, and 
that the majority of the House of Representatives held a con- 
trary opinion ; that the House Avas proceeding to impeach the 
President for his acts upon that subject, and that the Senate 
should, pending that proceeding, in an assumed legislative char- 
acter, originate and pass resolutions declaring constitutional and 
legal those very acts of the President upon which the House 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 291 

were, at the time, founding articles of impeachment, as being 
violations of the Constitution and the law. Will any one doubt 
that such a judgment of acquittal by the Senate would be a vio- 
lation of its duty as a judicial body, and a prejudging of a case 
about to be presented judicially before it ? It is not, then, true 
that the Senate can propei'ly pronounce in favor of an accused 
officer, until he is regularly put upon his trial before the body; 
and the argument of the Senator, based upon this assumption, 
wholly fails, and requires no further answer than the single alle- 
gation that the position belongs to the Senator himself, and not 
to anything to be found in the President's communication. 

" Again, the honorable Senator contends that the President says, 
'the Senate did not originally intend any legislation by the pas- 
saofe of the resolution.' As well in reference to the remarks of 
the honorable Senator upon this point, as to those of the membei* 
from New Jersey, who was not in his seat [Mr. Southard], Mr. 
W. said he deemed it important to see what the President had in 
fact said. He would, therefore, read from the second column of 
page four of the message, as published in pamphlet at the Globe 
office. The language was as follows: 

" ' The resolution in question was introduced, discussed and passed, not 
as a joint, but as a separate resolution. It asserts no legislative power; pro- 
poses no legislative action; and neither possesses the form nor any of the 
attributes of a legislative measure. It does not appear to have been enter- 
tained or passed with any view or expectation of its issuing in a law or joint 
resolution, or in the repeal of any law or joint resolution, or in any other 
legislative action.' 

"This, said Mr. W., is what the President has said upon the 
point, and I appeal to every Senator to say if the language bears 
out the declaration of the honorable Senator from Kentucky. It 
is merely that the resolution does not 'appear' to have been 
entertained or passed with a view to legislation. The President 
does not assume to assert the fact of intention and purpose, but 
merely the appearance. How, then, stands the case with the Sena- 
tor from New Jersey ? He went so far as to say that the Presi- 
dent had stated what was untrue, and what he knew to be 
imtrue in this particular. I believe, said Mr. W., that this was 
the first instance in which a Senator had so far forgotten himself, 



292 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

and what was due to his situation, as, in his place, to charge the 
President of the United States with known and intentional false- 
hood; and I shall make no other answer to such a charge than to 
refer again to what the President has said, and to what the 
Senator did charge. 

" J\[r. W. said he must, however, draw the attention of the 
Senate to the fact that, in the whole course of the debate upon 
the resolution referi-ed to, from the first sentence, almost, in the 
remarks made by the honorable Senator from IVtissouri [Mr. Ben- 
ton], in opening the debate against the resolution, to the remarks 
made by himself at the close of the debate upon that side, it had 
been asserted and repeated that the resolution was judicial in its 
character; that it did not and could not lead to legislation, and 
that the action of the Senate upon it, legislatively, was palpably 
unconstitutional and a usurpation of j^ower. In answer to these 
assertions and arguments he had not once heard an attempt to 
point out the legislation designed to be promoted by the passage 
of the resolution, though it had been contended that the Senate 
had a right to pass it to protect its legislative powers. He had 
not himself believed, when the resolution was before the Senate, 
tliat it was calculated to lead to any legislative action, and on 
and since its passage he had exercised his ingenuity in vain to 
conjecture what possible act of legislation could follow from it. 
His surprise, then, could be well imagined when he had heard 
the chief magistrate, a man who had never, by his most bitter 
enemy, been accused of evasion or subterfuge, directly charged 
with intentional falsehood for saying that this resolution did not 
' appear ' to have been entertained or passed with a view to legis- 
lation. He now called upon honorable gentlemen to i^oint out 
the legislation intended to follow the expression of opinion con- 
tained in this resolution; and he must be permitted to hope that 
the charge of falsehood againt the President, for speaking of the 
appearance only of the measure, would not be repeated until 
this call should be answered. The honorable Senator from Ken- 
t ucky, while he contended that the resolution was intended to lead 
to legislation, admitted fully that any attempt to reduce the 
intent to jtractice was contingent, and depended upon the dispo- 
sition of the other branch of Congress to concur with the views 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 293 

of the Senate. This was another fact going far to justify the 
President, and much farther to show that no legislation, depend- 
ent upon such a contingency, could have been reasonably expected. 
" The honorable Senator next introduced the subject of privi- 
lege, and, among other things, contended that the message was 
a breach of the privileges of the Senate, in its reference to the 
votes of individual Senators upon the resolution complained of. 
Mr. W. said he would make no other reply to this position than 
to rejDcat what had been already said by the honorable Senator 
from Illinois : ' that the people of every State were as much the 
constituents of the President as they were of the Senators from 
the given State ; that the relations between them and the Presi- 
dent were more immediate than between them and their Senators; 
that the President had an equal right with any Senator to speak 
of the wishes of the people of the State from which the Senator 
might come, to exhibit the evidence of what those wishes were, 
and to draw conclusions from that evidence.' This, if any, was 
the offense of the President here complained of. The Legisla- 
tures of certain States had instructed their Senators to support 
the President in the acts which the resolution condemns. Some 
of the Senators, so instructed, had felt it to be their duty to dis- 
regard their instructions, and to unite in the condemnation of 
the President for the acts which the Legislatures of their States 
have expressly approved. The President is called upon to make 
his defense against the condemnation thus pronounced upon him, 
and, among other things, he proceeds to show that his measures 
have been in accordance with the public will ; that, in his judg- 
ment, an expression from a State Legislature is the most authentic 
evidence of the wishes of those whom that Legislature repre- 
sents, when the people have not had an opportunity, directly 
through the ballot-boxes, to make their expression upon the point 
in controversy ; that, assuming that evidence to be the true index 
of the will of the States mentioned, he is sustained by them ; 
and that, had their Senators acted in accordance with this will, 
thus expressed, he should have been sustained, and not condemned 
by the Senate. The President expressly disclaims all intention 
to interfere with the relations between the Senators and their 
constituents, and says, in terms, that his only object in referring 



294 Life and Times of Silas Wright, 

to the action of their respective Legislatures was to connect 
those expressions with the history of the acts for which he 
had been accused. If this is to be denounced as a breach of the 
privileges of the Senate, we can effectually seal the lips of the 
President, so far as the opinions and wishes of the people of the 
States or the expressions of their respective Legislatures are con- 
cerned, lest in speaking of them, although his immediate constitu- 
ents, he may be guilty of- a trespass upon the privileges of this 

body. 

" The honorable Senator next tells us that the President has no 
right to ask the Senate to record a message which proposes no 
legislative action. It has already been seen that the President 
does not demand that the message before the Senate should be 
recorded as a matter of right, but respectfully requests it as a 
matter of justice ; not that it has any relation to those messages, 
upon subjects of legislation, which it is his duty, by the Consti- 
tution, to send to the Congress, but that it is a communication 
called from him by resolution of the Senate, unjustly accusing 
him of crime, and unconstitutionally encroaching upon his rights 
as a citizen and a public officer of the government. Thus mucli 
being premised, it is a sufficient answer to this position to say 
that, when the Senate shall abstain from expressions, spread upon 
its journal, condemning the President's official acts, and thus 
bringing reproach upon him as a magistrate and a citizen, without 
any reference to legislative action, that officer will have no occa- 
sion to ask this body to record messages in answer to such expres- 
sions, and in defense of himself, which propose no legislative 
action. 

"Mr. W. said he had now reached an argument not confined 
to the honorable Senator from Kentucky, but which had been 
used by most of those who had addressed the Senate upon the 
subject of the protest, on that side of the House. He referred 
to the allegation, so often repeated, that the President, in this 
paper, had set up a claim, on behalf of the executive branch 
of the government, to the possession and custody of not only 
the treasure, but all the property of the government, of every 
name and description whatsoever. To this argument, or rather 
allegation, he believed it was in his power to give, and he intended 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 295 

to give, a full and perfect answer. It will be recollected, said 
Mr. W., that the protest appeared here on the seventeenth of the 
last month, and that upon the twenty-first, four days after, an 
explanatory communication was made by the President to that 
part of the paper from which this position is drawn. Upon 
the reading of the explanatory communication, an honorable 
Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Preston] took the floor, and 
congratulated the Senate 'upon the retraxW of the President. 
Since that period, he, Mr. W., had understood the honorable 
gentleman to say that, upon a careful examination of the two 
papers, he had strong doubts whether the second paper was a 
' retraxit,'' and whether the proper construction of the first mes- 
sage was not substantially that given to it by the second. The 
honorable Senator from Maine [Mr. Sprague] had said distinctly, 
on a late day, that the second message was no modification what- 
ever of the first, but that all the claims of power, in the execu- 
tive department of the government, made in the first message, 
were wholly unimpaired, and only rendered more obscure and 
unintelligible by the second. The honorable Senator from Ken- 
tucky, in the course of his remarks, adopted, in their whole extent, 
the positions taken by the Senator from Maine, and declared that 
they were so clear, so sound, and so fully applicable to the facts, 
that he would not spend the time of the Senate in attempting 
further to establish them. 

" Here, then, Mr. President, said Mr. W., we have three dis- 
tinguished gentlemen of the opposition, all perfectly agreeing 
that the explanatory message does not retract anything from the 
true and fair construction of that communication to which it was 
intended as an explanation, but that all the claims of power, be 
they right or be they wrong, which were made in the first mes- 
sage, are repeated and reasserted in the second. I, sir, fully agree 
with the gentlemen that this is so ; and I congratulate the Senate 
and the country that, while every inch of ground upon this vexed 
topic is so strenuously contested, we have here a single point 
upon which there is no difference of opinion. Considering the 
point, therefore, as fully settled, that both the messages make 
the same claims of power, in the executive department of the 
government, as to the possession and custody of the public money 



296 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

and property, and that there is no longer any dispute about that 
matter, Mr. W. said he would read from the explanatory message, 
to determine what these claims in fact were. The language of 
the President, he said, was as follows : 

" 'I admit, without reserve, as I have before done, the constitutional 
power of the Legislature to prescribe by law the place in which the public 
money or other property is to be deposited ; and to make such regulations 
concerning its custody, removal or disposition as they may think proper to 
enact. Nor do I claim for the executive any right to the possessioa or dis- 
position of the public property or treasure, or any authority to interfere 
with the same, except when such possession, disposition or authority is 
given to him by law. Nor do I claim tlie right iu any manner to supervise 
or interfere with the person intrusted with such property or treasure, unless 
he be an officer whose appointment is, under the Constitution and laws, 
devolved upon the President alone, or in conjunction with the Senate, and 
for whose conduct he is constitutionally responsible.' 

" Here, then, said Mr. W., by the consent of all, are the claims 
of power upon this deeply important part of the subject, the 
possession and custody of the public property and treasure. It 
is true, the honorable Senator from Maine has said that the above 
language only tends to obscurity and doubt ; but, with all pro- 
per deference for the clear intellect of that honorable gentleman, 
I have not been able to discover the darkness or obscurity of the 
language I have just read from this second message — and so 
confident am I that nothing which I can address to the Senate 
will make it more clear and intelligible, either to the members of 
this body or to the intelligent citizens of the country generally, 
lli.it I abstain from comment wholly, and most fearlessly leave 
the claims of power here set forth to be decided by the plain 
reading of the Constitution and the judgment of our constituents. 

" I next, said Mr. W., meet the augury of the honorable Senator 
from Kentucky. He says he told us, l)ut a few weeks since, that 
the President would set up new claims of power derived from 
his oath of office, and that lo ! already his prophecy is fulfilled. 
How, Mr. President, is the fact? Has the President made any 
claim of power predicated upon his oath of office ? I have dis- 
covered no such claim. He does tell us, in the protest, that he 
considered the constitutional rights of the executive department 
of the government infringed upon by the resolution of the 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 297 

Senate ; that these rights were intrusted to his care by virtue of 
his office, and that his oath made it the more imperatively his 
duty to defend them. Is this a claim of power from that oath, 
or is it a presentation of the oath as an obligation of duty whicli 
he could not forego ? I understand the latter to be a fair cou- 
struction of the President's language, and I cheerfully leave the 
decision of the point to those who will read the message. I 
must, however, be permitted to make a single inquiry as to the 
prophecy. Was it the result of a genuine spirit of divination, or 
did tlie conscience of the honorable Senator prompt him so cor- 
rectly as to what would be the constitutional duty of the Presi- 
dent, in the event of the passage of his resolution, that he was 
enabled to foretell the binding obligation of his oath, and to turn 
it into a new claim of power ? In any event, it is ungenerous for 
the Senator to make this use of the President's reference to his offi- 
cial oatli; for, in his remarks upon that very portion of the mes- 
sage, he told us that he too had taken an oath to suppoi't the 
Constitution, and that his oath compelled him to make the remarks 
which he then submitted to the Senate. He surely would not 
consider it just, in me, to charge him with having instituted a 
new claim of power, founded upon his oath of office, in conse- 
quence of that remark ; and he should not, therefore, in a like 
case, make the same charge against the President. 

" Mr. W. said the honorable Senator had asked, ' What has 
been the cause of the present tremendous agitation of the coun- 
try — an agitation bordering upon civil war?' To answer the 
question, he must ask, what did the gentleman who differed from 
him i)ropose as a remedy for that agitation ? Was it a restora- 
tion of t he public deposits to the Bank of the United States ? 
[Here Mr Clay nodded assent to the question.] Mr. W. said 
the honi)rable Senator gave an affirmative to his inquiry, but he 
would iind very few of his friends, either in or out of this 
House, who would agree witli him. What liad been the remedy 
almost universally demanded by the opponents of the adminis- 
tration in all portions of the country ? The answer was sim- 
ple^ — a recharter of the Bank of the United States. That, and 
that alone, it was said, would quiet the agitations now prevailing 
as to the moneyed concerns of tlie country. Would the rcstora- 



298 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

tion of the dejjosits do it — and how ? Only by a recharter of the 
bank. Mr. W. said he liazarded nothing in saying that, were it 
unalterably determined that the charter of the bank could not be 
extended, that institution would not accept, to-day, the public 
deposits, if offered to it. Should it do so ? The removal has been 
made, and the shock consequent upon that change had been experi- 
enced, and its effects had nearly ceased. Were, then, that immense 
institution to know that a final close must be made of its affairs 
by the 3d of JVIarch, 1836, could it desire the possession of these 
deposits for the short period of twenty months, with the certainty 
that they must then again be delivered to other hands ? Could 
it wish to create the shock which must be produced by taking 
them from the institutions where they now are, for the mere pur- 
pose of keeping them for that short period, during which its own 
capital will furnish it with more means than it can prudently 
use, with a due regard to its final close, and under the certain 
knowledge that the same shock must be again repeated when the 
expiration of its charter should compel it to cease its agency ? 
Such a desire is contrary to reason and to the interests of the 
institution, and cannot exist; and he who expects to quiet the 
present agitations in the public mind by a series of changes of 
the public deposits, such as this policy would produce, must have 
looked very partially into the true causes of the present state of 
things. No, Mr. President, the honorable Senator is wholly mis- 
taken. Any disposition of the public deposits will not produce 
the quiet he supposes. A bank! a bank! is the cry. Look at 
the memorials upon your table, and say if that is not the remedy 
which the friends of the Senator almost universally point out. 
Tlie honorable gentleman said it had been attempted to establish 
the belief that the question was ' bank or no bank,' with an evi- 
dent allusion to some remarks made by myself upon a former 
occasion. Sir, I did then say the question was ' bank or no bank,' 
and I repeat the opinion with undiminished confidence. I do 
not question the sincerity of the honorable Senator's opinion that 
certain executive encroachments are the great causes of these 
agitations; but I can assure him, as my sincere belief, that if 
himself and his friends would come to the conclusion to say ' no 
bank,' the agitations would instantly cease, and his imaginary 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 299 

executive encroachments would appear, as I believe them to be, 
the ordinary action of the executive branch of the government, 
When the calm would come, it was out of his power to say ; but 
he believed, with the honorable Senator and others who had 
expressed similar opinions, that another trial was to take place at 
the ballot-boxes, before it would arrive. For himself, he would 
wait that trial patiently, and confident of the result. 

" The expression of the honorable Senator, that the present 
agitations are bordering upon civil war, Mr. W. said he had 
heard with unfeigned regret. The time was one of excitement, 
and he was sorry to see efforts from any quarter to increase the 
passion which was already aroused. He did not believe such 
efforts would tend to any salutary result. For his own part, he 
had not permitted himself, for one moment, to be alarmed at the 
danger of civil war in this prosperous and happy country. He 
knew the intelligence and patriotism of our citizens too well not 
to know that they were not prepared to plunge the country into 
a civil war, to meet each other in the field of blood, and to point 
the bayonet at each other's breasts, for the sake of a bank. The 
honorable Senator need have no alarm upon that point. No 
blood would be shed in that way, to defend the fancied rights or 
to gratify the insatiable wants of a moneyed monopoly. If 
encroachments of power from any department of the government, 
dangerous to the liberties of the people and to the perpetuity of 
our free institutions, shall appear, they will be resisted and put 
down, not by the force of arms and the power of the sword, but 
by the silent and sure operation of a calm and enlightened public 
opinion and the power of the ballot-boxes. They will work all 
the revolution we are yet to experience, and it will be decisive 
and effectual. 

"The honorable Senator, and my esteemed friend from 
Tennessee [Mr. Grundy], have discussed their respective claims 
to the ancient federal party, and to the modern appellation 
of whig, most satisfactorily to my feelings, and I have no 
disposition to interfere with either their claims or their protesta- 
tions. I must be permitted, however, to say that I was pleased 
to hear the gentleman from Kentucky recognize his claim to the 
larger portion of that class of politicians. Still, I could not but 



300 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

feel convinced that the honorable Senator permitted himself to 
do great injustice to the intelligent few of that party who, to 
use his own phrase, ' had gone over to Jacksonism,' Surely the 
gentleman will not deny that the great fault with these men has 
been the radical errors of their political faith, and he will freely 
admit that the renunciation of error is creditable both to the 
head and heart of him who, being convinced of his error, goes 
over to the truth. And as the numbers are small who have thus 
left the ranks of the honorable Senator, he ought not, on that 
account, to permit his feelings to characterize them so harshly as 
his remarks indicated. 

"Mr, W. said there was one position of the honorable Senator, 
however, upon this point, which he could not admit. The honor- 
able gentleman had stated that all the causes of these old political 
divisions had passed away. So far from it, said Mr. W., in my 
opinion, the very causes which mainly produced those divisions 
in 1789 have never, since that period, been in more active opera- 
tion than at this moment. They have been brought again into 
action by the present controversy ; and however individuals may 
change sides, the same great causes will continue to operate, 
whenever the principles which gave them existence shall be 
revived. Those causes form one of the strongest agents in the 
political excitements at present experienced, and they will con- 
tinue to operate now, as they have ever done heretofore, while 
hope for their success can be kept alive with those who espouse 
the principles referred to. 

" The honorable Senator, Mr. W. said, had closed his remarks 
with a prediction most appalling in its terms, and, if the prophet 
were infallible, which would effectually dishearten the friends of 
the administration in all parts of the country. It was, 'that 
this protest of the President would prove to be the last blow 
upon the last nail in the coffin of Jacksonism.' Mr. W. said he 
claimed no gift of prophecy, nor did he ever permit himself to 
speak with too much confidence of the future, or with too sreat 
certainty attempt to foretell future effects from present causes. 
It was not now his purpose to speak of this prediction with any 
such design ; but he thought, for the encouragement of his politi- 
cal friends, he miglit be permitted to allude to a former prophetic 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 301 

anticipation of the honorable member, to prove that his predic- 
tions had not always been fulfilled, and that, hitherto, he had not 
been an infallible proj^het. During the session of 1832, and 
prior to the great contest for the presidency of that year, this 
same subject of the bank was before Congress. Then the Presi- 
dent returned the bill to the Senate with his ' veto proper,' as I 
think it is classed in the honorable gentleman's classification. 
When that paper was under consideration, the Senator addressed 
this body, and indulged in the most confident anticipations of 
effects cheering to him and his friends and disastrous to the 
friends of tlic administration, to be produced by that veto. 
With his usual aptness in illustrations, he introduced Dr. Frank- 
lin's celebrated fable of the eagle and the cat, and dignified the 
friends of the administration by assigning to them the emblem 
of the eagle, while that of the cat was reserved for the bank. 
Having told the story, the result was announced in triumph and 
with evident exultation : the cat had brought the towering eagle 
to its own terms of capitulation and compromise. The event, 
however, did not realize the honorable gentleman's fond antici- 
pations. The result of that election exhibited the administration 
with vast accessions of strength and a general improvement of 
prospects. The eagle was not brouglit to capitulate to the cat ; 
and, Mr, President, let me congratulate the honorable Senator 
and the country that his eagle yet soars aloft upon the dense 
atmosphere of an enlightened public opinion ; and happy am I 
to be able to say I have lost none of my confidence that liis 
flight will continue to be upward and onward. But if that mous- 
iner cat shall ever succeed in bringing him to the ground, I can 
tell the Senator the proudest pluimigc in the eagle of his country 
will be soiled ; the spirit of tli;it lofty bird will be forever 
broken; and thereafter, if indeed he shall ever rise from the 
unnatural grasp, his flights may be expected to be made for hire, 
not from independent pride ; with the tamed spirit of the caged 
bird, not the rich luxuriance of his native freedom." 



302 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

An Invitation Declined. 

The first session of the twenty-third Congress closed 
on the 30th of June, 1 834. At no period in our govern- 
ment had the debates in the Senate been conducted with 
more ability, or involved more important or momentous 
questions. No legislative body ever assembled was 
superior to the Senate in talent, or skill in discussions. 
It included a very large number of members who had 
had great experience in legislation, and other public 
affairs. Clay, AVebster, Forsyth, Grrundy, Benton, Cal- 
houn and many others were in their prime. The young 
Senator from New York had sustained himself even 
beyond the expectations of his friends, and had proved 
that he was the equal of the ablest of them in parliamen- 
tary debate, which placed him in the front rank of states- 
men. His eminent success, attracting the attention and 
securing the admiration of his friends at the State capital, 
had induced them to invite him to partake of a public 
dinner at Albany, on his way to Washington, prior to 
the next session. This he declined in a characteristic 
lettter, from which we make an extract : 

" You will believe me, gentlemen, when I say that from no 
quarter could such a mark of friendship and confidence come to 
me more acceptably than from the democratic citizens of Albany. 
With them for my associates and counselors, and under their per- 
sonal observation, has much the largest portion of my public 
duties been discharged; and this evidence that I have been so 
fortunate as to secure their approbation is most gratifying, as it 
permits me to hope tliat my efforts to be faithful to the public 
have not been wholly unsuccessful. A proper attention to the 
same duties compels me to ask you, and those whom you repre- 
sent, to excuse me from meeting you and them as you request. 
My short stay in the city must be wholly devoted to public busi- • 
ness and public interests of great importance, a necessary atten- 
tion to which brought me here thus early, on my way to the seat of 
government; and while I will not attempt to express my regret 



Life anb Times of Silas Wright. 303 

that I cannot enjoy the social meetiilg to which you invite me, I 
am consoled by the reflection that the loss will be mine — not 
that of the friends Avho are thus partial to me." 

Mr. AVright did not participate in the very common 
desire of mankind to attract public attention and to 
become the center of observation. He preferred to pass 
along in quiet, and devote his energies to his duties in 
life, whatever they might be. Although often invited 
to do so, it is not remembered that he ever accepted an 
invitation to partake of a public dinner tendered him. 



304 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



•Chapter XLIX. 

THE BILL TO PAY FOR FRENCH SPOLIATIONS PRIOR TO 1800. 

Whoever lias been familiar with the debates in Con- 
gress for the last seventy years, must have heard of the 
French Spoliation Claims. They had then- origin during 
the latter part of the last century, amid the armed con- 
flicts in Europe, in which France was a party. During 
these, neutral commerce suffered severely. Under dif- 
ferent pretenses American shipping interests were subject 
to many losses. The difficulties began as early as 1793, 
and continued until 1800. During the two last years of 
this period, the legislation of Congress and acts of violence 
and bloodshed at sea show that there was actual war 
between the United States and France. In 1800 a treaty 
of amity and commerce was entered into between the 
French Government and ours. In 1803, we purchased 
Louisiana of France, and agreed to pay a portion of the 
purchase-money to certain claimants, which we actually 
did. These unadjusted claims now amount to many 
millions of dollars. 

The claimants not provided for in the treaty have 
insisted that the United States were bound to pay their 
demands, for the following reasons : 

First. Tliat our government had not used due diligence 
and proper exertions to obtain from France what she 
ought to pay them. 

Second. That our government, by the treaty of 1800, 
had released these claims for a consideration, thus estab- 
lishing an equitable, if not a legal claim. 

Those opposed to the claims have uniformly denied the 
charge of negligence, or that any release was ever actually 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 305 

made, or intended to be, even by implicatiou. The affir- 
mative of these questions rests with the claimants. Those 
insisting that the government was in nowise liable have 
ever assumed that there was not the slightest evidence to 
sustain either point. 

Mr. Wright opposed these claims in an extended 
speech, from which extracts are given sufficiently at 
length to show why he took ground against them. He 
said : 

" He felt safe in the assertion that during no equal period 
in the history of our government could there be found such 
untiring and unremitted exertions to obtain justice for citizens 
who had been injured in their properties by the unlawful acts 
of a foreign power. Any one who would read the mass of diplo- 
matic correspondence between this government and France, from 
1193 to 1798, and who would mark the frequent and extra- 
ordinary missions, bearing constantly in mind that the recovery 
of these claims was the only ground upon our part for the whole 
negotiation, would find it difficult to say where negligence 
toward the rights and interests of its citizens is imputable to the 
government of the United States during this period. He was 
not aware that such an imputation had been or would be made ; 
but sure he was that it could not be made with justice, or sus- 
tained by the facts upon the record. No liability, therefore, 
equitable or legal, has been incurred up to the year 1798. 

" And if, said Mr. W., negligence is not imputable prior to 
1798, and no liability had then been incurred, how is it for the 
second period, from 1798 to 1800? The efforts of the former 
period were negotiation, constant, earnest, extraordinary negotia- 
tion. What were they for the latter period ? His answer was, 
war, actual, open war ; and he believed the statute book of the 
United States would justify him in the position. He was well 
aware that this point would be strenuously controverted, because 
the friends of the bill would admit that, if a state of war 
between the two countries did exist, it put an end to claims exist- 
ing prior to the war, and not provided for in the treaty of peace, 
as well as to all pretense for claims to indemnity for injuries to 
20 



306 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

our commerce committed by our enemy in time of war. Mr. 
AV. said he had found the evidences so numerous to establish his 
position that a state of actual war did exist, that he had been 
(juite at a loss from what portion of the testimony of record to 
make his selections, so as to establish the fact beyond reasonable 
dispute, and, at the same time, not to weary the Senate by tedious 
references to laws and documents. He had finally concluded to 
confine himself exclusively to the statute book, as the highest 
possible evidence, as in his judgment entirely conclusive, and as 
beino- susceptible of an arrangement and condensation which 
would convey to the Senate the whole material evidence in a 
satisfactory manner, and in less compass than the proofs to be 
drawn from any other source. He had, therefore, made a very 
brief abstract of a few statutes, which he would read in his 
place." 

After reading from numerous acts of Congress, clearly 
proving the existence of actual war, lie said : 

" He had now closed the references he proposed to make to 
the laws of Congress, to prove that war, actual Avar, existed 
between the United States and France, from July, 1798, until 
that war was terminated by the treaty of the 30th of Septem- 
ber, 1800. He had, he hoped, before shown that the measures 
of Congress, up to the passage of the act of Congress of the 
25th of June, 1798, and including that act, were appropriate 
measures preparatory to a state of war ; and he had now shown 
a total suspension of the peaceable relations between the two 
governments, by the declaration of Congress that the treaties 
should no longer be considered binding and obligatory upon our 
government or its citizens. What, then, but war could be inferred 
from an indiscriminate direction to our public armed vessels, put 
in a state of preparation by preparatory acts, to capture all 
armed French vessels upon the high seas, and from granting 
commissions to our whole commercial marine, also armed by the 
operation of previous acts of Congress, authorizing them to make 
the same captures, with regulations applicable to both for the 
condemnation of the prizes, the distribution of the prize money, 
.nnd the detention, support and exchange of the prisoners taken 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 307 

in the captured vessels ? Will any man, said Mr, W., call this 
a state of peace ? " 

Mr. Wright proceeded : 

"He said he was not deeply read in the treatises upon national 
law, and he should never dispute with that learned gentleman 
upon the technical definitions of peace and war, as given in the 
books ; but his appeal was to the plain sense of every Senator 
and every citizen of the country. Would either call that state 
of things which he had described, and which he had shown to 
exist from the highest of all evidence, the laws of Congress alone, 
peace ? It was a state of open and undisguised hostility, of force 
opposed to force, of war upon the ocean, as far as our govern- 
ment were in command of the means to carry on a maritime war. 
If it was peace, he should like to be informed by the friends of 
the bill what would be war. This was violence and bloodshed, 
the power of one nation against the power of the other, recipro- 
cally exhibited by physical force. 

" Couple with this the withdrawal by France of her minister 
from this government, and her refusal to receive the American 
commission, consisting of Messrs. Marshall, Pinckney and Gerry, 
and the consequent suspension of negotiations between the two 
governments during the period referred to, and, Mr. W. said, if 
the facts and the national records did not show a state of war, he 
was at a loss to know what state of things between nations should 
be called war. 

" Mr. W. said he now came to the consideration of the liability 
of the United States to these claimants, in case it shall be deter- 
mined by the Senate that a war between France and the United 
States had not existed to bar all ground of claim either against 
France or the United States. He understood the claimants to 
put this liability upon the assertion that the government of the 
United States had released their claims against France by the 
treaty of the 30th of September, 1800, and that the release was 
made for a full and valuable consideration passing to. the United 
States, which in law and equity made it their duty to pay the 
claims. The consideration passing to the United States is alleged 
to be their release from the onerous obligations imposed upon 



g08 Ltfe and Times of Silas Wright. 

theiii by the treaties of amity and commerce and alliance of 1778, 
and the consnlar convention of 1778, and especially and princi- 
pally by the seventeenth article of the treaty of amity and com- 
merce, in relation to armed vessels, privateers and prizes, and by 
the eleventh article of the treaty of alliance, containing the mutual 

guarantees. 

" The release Mr. W. said, was claimed to have been made in 
the striking out, by the Senate of the United States, of the 
second article of the treaty of 30th September, 1800, as that 
article was originally inserted and agreed upon by the respective 
negotiators of the two powers, and as it stood at the time the 
treaty was signed. To cause this point to be clearly understood, 
it would be necessary for him to trouble the Senate with a history 
of the ratification of this treaty. The second article, as inserted 
by the negotiators, and as standing at the time of the signing of 
the treaty, was in the following words : 

" 'Art. 2. The ministers plenipotentiary of the two powers not being 
able to agree, at present, respecting the treaty of alliance of 6th February, 
1778, the treaty of amity and commerce of the same dale, and the conven- 
tion of 14th November, 1788, nor upon the indemnities mutually due or 
claimed, the parties will negotiate further upon these subjects at a convenient 
time ; and, until they may have agreed upon these points, the said treaties 
and convention shall have no operation, and the relations of the two coun- 
tries shall be regulated as follows.' 

" The Senate refused to advise and consent to this article, and 
expunged it from the treaty, inserting in its place the following: 

" 'It is agreed that the present convention shall be in force for the term 
of eight years from the time of the exchange of the ratifications.' 

" In this shape, and with this modification, the treaty was duly 
ratified by the President of the United States, and returned to 
the French government for its dissent or concurrence. Bona- 
parte, then First Consul, concurred in the modification made by 
the Senate, in the following language, and upon the condition 
therein expressed : 

" ' The Government of the United States having added to its ratification 
that the convention should be in force for the space of eight years, and having 
omitted the second article, the government of the French Republic consents 
to accept, ratify and confirm the above convention, with the addition, pur ■ 
porting that the convention shall be in force for the space of eight years, 



Life and Tines of Silas Wright. 309 

and with the retrenchment of the second article : Provided, That, by this 
retrenchment, the two States renounce the respective pretensions which are 
the object of the said article.' 

" This ratification by the French Republic, thus qualified, was 
returned to the United States, and the treaty, with the respective 
conditional ratifications, was again submitted by the President 
of the United States to the Senate. That body ' resolved that 
they considered the said convention as fully ratified, and returned 
the same to the President for the usual promulgation ;' where- 
upon he completed the ratification in the usual forms and by the 
usual publication. 

" What was the value or the burden of such an obligation upon 
the United States ? for this was the only obligation from which 
our govei-nment was released by striking out the article. The 
value, Mr. W. said, was the value of the privilege, being perfectly 
at liberty in the premises of assenting to or dissenting from a 
bad bargain, — a matter of negotiation between ourselves and a 
foreign power. This was the consideration passing to the United 
States, and, so far as he was able to view the subject, this was 
all the consideration the government had received, if it be granted 
(which he must by no means be understood to admit) that the 
striking: out of the article was a release of the claims, and tluit 
such release was intended as a consideration for the benefits to 
accrue from the act. 

" Mr. W. said he felt bound to dwell for a moment upon this 
point. What was the value of an obligation to negotiate ' at a 
convenient time ? ' Was it anything to be valued ? The ' con- 
venient time ' might never arrive; or, if it did arrive, and negotia- 
tions were opened, were not the government as much at liberty, 
as in any other case of negotiation, to refuse propositions which 
were deemed disadvantageous to itself ? 

" He could not view the obligation released — a mere obligation 
to negotiate — as onerous at all, or as forming any consideration 
whatever for a pecuniary liability, much less for a liability for 
millions. 

" He had now, Mr. W. said, attempted to establish the follow- 
ing propositions, viz. : 

" 1. That a state of actual war, by which he meant a state of 



310 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

actual hostilities and of force, and an interruption of all diplo- 
matic or friendly intercourse between the United States and 
France, had existed from the time of the passage of the acts of 
the 7th and 9th July, 1798, before referred to, until the sending 
of the negotiators, Ellsworth, Davie and Murray, in' 1800, to 
make a treaty which put an end to the hostilities existing, upon 
the best terms that could be obtained ; and that the treaty of 
the 30th of September, 1800, concluded by these negotiators, 
was, in fact, and so far as private claims were concerned, to be 
considered as a treaty of peace, and to conclude all such claims, 
not reserved by it, as finally ratified by the two powers. 

" 2. That the treaty of amity and commerce, and the treaty of 
alliance of 1778, as well as the consular convention of 1788, were 
suspended by the second article of the treaty of 1800, and from 
that time became mere matters for negotiation between the par- 
ties at a convenient time ; that, therefore, the desire to get rid of 
these treaties, and of any ' onerous obligations ' contained in 
them, was only the desire to get rid of an obligation to negotiate 
' at a convenient time ;' and that such a consideration could not 
have induced the Senate of the United States to expunge that 
article from the treaty, if thereby that body had supposed it was 
imposing upon the country a liability to pay to its citizens the 
sum of 85,000,000 — a sum much larger than France had asked, 
in money, for a full discharge from the ' onerous obligations ' 
relied upon. 

" 3. That the treaty of 1800 reserved and provided for certain 
portions of the claims; that payment, according to such i*eserva- 
tions, was made under the treaty of 1803, and that it is at least 
doubtful whether the payment thus made did not cover all the 
claims ever admitted, or ever intended to be paid by Fi-ance ; for 
which reason the expunging of the second article of the treaty 
of 1800 by the Senate of the United States, in all probability, 
released nothing which ever had, or which was ever likely to 
have, value. 

" Mr, W. said, if he had been successful in establishing either of 
these positions, there was an end of the claims, and, by conse- 
quence, a defeat of the bill. " 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 311 

The bill then pending passed the Senate by a vote of 
25 to 20, on the 3d of February, 1835, and was sent to 
the House of Representatives. In the House there were 
motions to commit the bill to the Committee of Ways and 
Means, on Claims, on Foreign Affairs, and, by the author, 
to that on the Judiciary. After a long discussion it was 
finally sent to the Committee on Foreign Relations, which, 
on the twenty-first of the month, reported that there was 
not sufficient time of the session left to consider and act 
upon it, and the committee were discharged from its 
further consideration. 

During Mr. Pierce's administration a bill for the pay- 
ment of these claims was passed, which encountered his 
veto and failed to become a law. 



312 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 



Chapter L. 

EXECUTIVE PATRONAGE, OR THE REPEAL OF THE FOUR- 

YEAR LAW. 

In tlie earlier days of the republic, there was no limi- 
tation of the term of service of any officer api^ointed by 
the President, except judges under the Constitution. 
Vacancies came only by death or removal. Few died, and 
removing was often a disagreeable duty, frequently dis- 
charged with extreme reluctance. It was deemed fitting 
and proper for each incoming President to make changes, 
so as to secure the assistance of known friends to aid hun 
in the discharge of his constitutional duties, enemies not 
being deemed suitable for that purpose. This induced 
Congress, prior to Mr. Monroe's second election, when 
it was supposed another might be elected in his place, to 
pass an act limiting the term of office to four years — the 
presidential term — of district attorneys, collectors of the 
customs, naval officers and surveyors of the customs, 
navy agents, receivers of public moneys for lands, regis- 
ters of land offices, paymasters in the army, the apothe- 
caries-general and the commissary-general of purchases. 

By the act of 1789, creating the office, the term of 
service of marshals was limited to four years. 

On the 6th of January, 1835, Mr. Calhoun moved a 
select committee of six to inquire into the matter of exec- 
utive patronage and its reduction, and one was appointed 
of which he was chairman. This committee, through 
their chaii-man, reported on the ninth of February, and 
presented three propositions. The first proposed to 
amend the Constitution, so as to authorize the distribu- 
tion of the surplus revenues among the States and Terri- 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 313 

tories until 1843. The second, to regulate the deposits of 
the public money, and the third, to repeal that portion of 
the act of 1820, as to the limitation of the official term 
of service of the officers therein named. This last propo- 
sition was made the special order for a subsequent day. 
On the 13tli of February, Mr. Calhoun opened the dis- 
cussion on this bill, wliich was continued several days, and 
the bill finally passed the Senate on the twenty -first, by a 
vote of 31 to 16; but it subsequently failed in the House. 

The debate on it took a very wide range. One of its 
provisions required the President, in case of a vacancy 
made by removal, when nominating for filling it, to assign 
his reasons for the removal. An amendment was pro- 
posed by Mr. Clay, declaring that "the power of removal 
shall be exercised only in concurrence with the Senate." 
Mr. Webster questioned the constitutional right of 
removal. In this opinion many concurred ; some insist- 
ing that " the tenure of office, when the duties were pro- 
perly performed, ought to be as stable as a freehold." 
Great fears were expressed that the executive would, by 
his patronage, absorb all the powers of the Government 
and control its whole action, thus enabling him, practi- 
cally, to play the uncontrolled despot. These, and the 
like arguments, were answered with great power by able 
Senators. 

On the 16th of February, 1835, Mr. AVeight addressed 
the Senate, at length, on the subject before them, as 
follows : 

" Mr. Wright said he had hoped that some one of the indivi- 
duals who had been so emphatically called upon by the honorable 
Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay], on a former day, as the 
leaders of the administration party, would have come forward in 
the debate then pending, and thus have saved him the trouble 
of addressing the Senate. But, as no such individual appeared, 
and as the bill was about to be reported, he felt bound to give 
his humble voice against it, before it proceeded further. 



314 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" He could not, he said, pursue the course which an answer to 
the argument of the learned Senator, who had just resumed his 
seat [Mr. Webster], would require, nor could he comply with 
the call and intimation of the Senator from Kentucky, to which 
ho liad alluded. 

"His object was to repel an implication which might attend 
the passage of this bill, and for that purpose to refer to such 
portions of the report of the committee as appeared to him to 
relate to the provisions of the bill itself, and the considerations 
involved in the legislation proposed. He did not intend to 
notice, upon this occasion, any other parts of the report than 
those which treated of the patronage of the executive, growing 
out of his connection with and influence over persons dependent 
upon and receiving their support from the government. The 
bill under consideration was all the legislation proposed by the 
committee in reference to this part of the executive patronage, 
and he must suppose that so much of the report as discussed this 
point was the legitimate subject of comment in connection with 
the bill. 

" Mr. W. said he did not understand the rule of order to be 
that laid down by the Senator from New Jersey [Mr. Southard], 
when he addressed the Senate on Friday last. He had under- 
stood that honorable gentleman then to state that the rejjort of 
the committee was not before the Senate, and proper matter for 
remark, Avhile proceeding upon this bill. He held a different 
rule. The bill was reported by a select committee of the Senate. 
It was one of the results to which that committee had arrived, 
after great labor and deliberation, and they had spread before 
the Senate a mass of facts and a long train of reasoning as the 
grounds upon which the bill was recommended to the acceptance 
of the body. Could it, then, be true that these facts and this 
reasoning, constituting the I'eport of the committee, wei^e not 
proper subjects for remark when acting upon the bill ? He was 
sure the honorable Senator, upon more mature reflection, would 
change his opinion, and hold the report fully before the Senate. 
He believed that any and every part of the report might be pro- 
perly discussed upon either of the propositions with which the 
committee had concluded, but he did not choose, himself, to 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 315 

notice more of it now than was pertinent to the matter before 
liim. 

" Mr, W. said he must be permitted to remark, before he pro- 
ceeded, that he had been wholly unable to feel or discover the 
necessity for the somber and alarming picture of danger to our 
happy form of government which the committee had thought it 
their duty to present. He could not feel that the safety or 
perpetuity of our institutions was peculiarly threatened at the 
present, more than at any former period of our history. On the 
contrary, he had supposed he could justly felicitate the Senate 
and the country upon the fact, which he had expected would 
have been admitted by all, that our condition was rapidly 
improving. No man in these seats had forgotten the picture 
drawn to our imaginations twelve months since — a picture which 
not only shocked us, but shocked this whole widely-extended 
country to a degree never before witnessed in the period of his 
recollection. Then, however, executive patronage was not the 
danger, but executive usurpation. The sword and the purse of 
the nation were in one hand, and our liberties were about to be 
cloven down. The fractured and broken pillars of the Constitu- 
tion were scattered before us, to display the ruin which had been 
made, and to warn us of the danger which impended. 

"That time and that danger had gone by. A distinct issue 
was formed and submitted to the sober and intelligent sense of 
the American people, and their decision had put an end to the 
agitation. Executive patronage was then a consideration too 
trifling to have a place in the leading discussions. Some mention 
of an army of 40,000 office-holders might have been made, 
but they were incidental and unimportant. Usurpation was 
the order of the day, and tyranny and despotism were upon 
us, Mr, W, said he supposed he might congratulate every patriot 
and lover of his country that this great danger had been passed, 
and its horrible evils averted, by the single and silent operation 
of an election ; and he had hoped that increased confidence in 
the safety and durability of our institutions would have followed 
this gratifying experience. How different was the fact ? He 
now found, in the report of the committee before him, abundant 
evidence — if the sad imaginings of the committee were facts — - 



316 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

that we were much neai-er final ruin than at the period to which 
lie had alluded. Now, usurpations by the executive had ceased 
to be dangerous, but the great patronage in the hands of the 
President was fost driving this fine ship of State upon the rocks, 
and imminently threatening the only free government in the 
world with utter and irretrievable ruin. 

" Under this renewed attempt to excite alarm and apprehension 
in the minds of the pej^ceful citizens of the country, he felt it to 
be his imperative duty to proclaim an entire absence of the 
threatened dangers. The country was sound and healthful, and 
prosperous and happy, and the patronage of the executive was 
not to corrupt its morals, endanger its peace or destroy its liber- 
ties. The mistake of the committee had proceeded from the 
assumption of premises wholly erroneous, and the consequent 
deduction of unfounded conclusions. 

" Mr. W. said he would proceed to show this by a partial analy- 
sis of their principal fact, and by an exposition of the fallacious 
conclusions drawn from it. They state that the number of per- 
sons dej)endent upon the government for support is 100,079, and 
they assume that all such persons are ' supple instruments of 
power.' This great number of persons, thus exhibited and thus 
characterized, was calculated to startle the mind. It had shocked 
him when he first heard the report read at the secretary's table. 
He had heard much said during the last year, both at home and 
here, by the opponents of the administration, of the danger to 
the country from an army of 40,000 oflice-holders, but his fears 
had not been excited, and he had never attempted to examine 
the composition of the corps. When, however, he found the 
number swelled, by the report of the committee, to more than 
100,000, he felt impelled to inquire who were these 100,000 men 
paid by this free government that they might wield public opinion 
to its destruction. He had made the inquiry, and to exhibit the 
results to the Senate and the country, and thus to repel the 
alarming implication of danger to our institutions which might 
otherwise arise from our action upon this bill, was the principal 
object he had in view upon the present occasion. 

" First, then, he found the whole army, officers, soldiers, waiters, 
and dependents, included in the list. And are the soldiers of our 



Life and T]3ies of Silas Wright. 317 

little army, said Mr. W,, to be held up to the country as a body 
of men wielding its public opinion and directing it to the destruc- 
tion of our institutions ? Are they to be pointed at as objects of 
jealousy and apprehension? Where are they, Mr. President? 
Almost the whole body of them pushed beyond the line of settle- 
ment upon your frontier, and there stationed, the companions of 
the wild Indian only, to defend your citizens from the tomahawk 
and seal ping-knife. Are they, thus located, the body of men 
who are to bring this happy government to a speedy termination ? 
No, sir, they will defend it with their lives, but never will endan- 
ger it by their influence over public opinion. The ofticers of the 
army are also embraced in this class. They, sir, are oflice-holders, 
but are they formidable to the country ? Are those brave men 
who bore the arms of the country during the late war, against 
the most formidable enemy in the world, and bore them success- 
fully, triumphantly, victoriously — are they to destroy this govern- 
ment ? Are they to be guarded against as ' supple instruments of 
power,' as ' subservient partisans, ready for every service, however 
base and corrupt ? ' Mr. President, said Mr. W., they merit not 
the sentence. Where are they? Shut up in your fortifications 
and military posts, performing their dull and uninteresting round 
of official duty, or ordered beyond your frontier and deprived of 
the benefits of civilized society, to protect their fellow-citizens from 
rapine and plunder. Thus situated, are they to be held up to us as 
objects of alarm ? Are our jealousies to be directed against them, 
as the persons likely to work out the full ruin of their country? 
Sir, the committee have made an egregious mistake as to these 
brave and patriotic officers. They will not destroy but defend the 
republic. Who has seen them mingling improperly in the political 
strifes of the day, or attempting unduly to influence public opinion 
Mr. W. said he had never witnessed such an instance of improper 
conduct in an officer of the army, and he was yet to learn that 
such instances had been witnessed by others. But another large 
enumeration of citizens aided to complete this division of the 
dangerous corps of more than 100,000. All the contractors, 
workmen and laborers, upon our public w^orks in the charge 
of the War Department, such as fortifications, rivers, canals, 
roads, harbors and all the other works of a similar description in 



318 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

construction at the expense of the government, were counted 
to make up this forniidable number of ' supple instruments of 
power.' Yes, Mr. President, said Mr, W., the humble carrier 
of the hod upon one of your batteries, who toils on for his daily 
allowance of a few shillings, unconscious of his agency, is one 
of the number of individuals whom the committee suppose 
material and dangerous agents in the work of ruin to the most 
free and happy government upon the earth. Each laborer of 
this description is held to be a 'supple instrument of power,' 
a subservient partisan, ' ready for every service, however base 
and corrupt.' Sir, tell this to the great body of the yeomanry 
of this country, and what will they say of this danger? They 
will smile at the credulity of the committee, and say they are 
mistaken in their apprehensions. This closes the first class of the 
great catalogue, consisting of 16,722 individuals. 

" Second. Mr. W. said he found the whole navy, including the 
marine corps, and comprehending altogether 8,784 individuals. 
Here, again, was a class of men whom he had not been taught 
to consider ' supple instruments of power,' ' subservient pai'tisans, 
ready for every service, however base and corrupt.' Sir, said he, 
are the gallant tars who bear the flag of our country proudly 
and triumphantly upon every sea, and to every corner of the 
globe, the mere ' supple instruments of power ?' Are the brave 
and fearless officers who command them ' subservient partisans, 
ready for every service, however base and corrupt ?' Is such 
the character of the officers of the American navy, and are they, 
at tliis moment, to be thus characterized to the American people, 
and to the world ? Not, said Mr. W., by me. They deserve not 
the character, in my judgment, and they shall not receive it with 
my assent. Docs any man believe, do the honorable committee 
believe, that, in consequence of the moderate compensation which 
these brave and high-minded and patriotic citizens receive for 
the devotion of their lives to the public service, they are prosti- 
tuted to the executive will, and ready to do his bidding, to the 
injury and destruction of the liberties of their country ? Do they 
believe that no higher and purer motive than subserviency to 
executive power has led them on to the noble achievements they 
have accomplished ? If such be the opinions of the committee, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 319 

they do the officers and seamen of our gallant navy great injustice. 
It is against the enemies of their country, not against tlieir 
country, that they war, and war successfully ; and long, long, 
will the liberties of our happy republic be preserved, if they are 
only to meet their destruction from the hands of the American 
navy. But, sir, this class is not wholly composed of the officers, 
and sailors and soldiers attached to the navy and marine corps. 
Every person employed in and about your navy yards and ship 
yards is included in the enumeration. The humble individual 
who rolls the wheelbarrow and handles the cart, or drives the 
oxen, at these places, is magnified into a man dangerous to our 
liberties, holding a fearful control over public opinion, a ' supple 
instrument of power,' ' ready for any service, however base and 
corrupt.' Such dangers, said Mr. W., will never destroy this 
republic. 

"Third. The whole roll of revolutionary pensioners, 38,836 in 
number. This class, Mi\ W. said, surprised him much more than 
the former. The departing shades of the revolutionary army were 
presented to us as about to become the instruments in the 
destruction of our liberties. Those venerable men, whose earliest, 
and greatest, and richest efforts had been devoted to the erection 
of this beautiful and noble temple of civil liberty, were now, for 
the pitiful compensation of eight dollars per month, to become 
the 'supple instruments of power,' to use their efforts to over- 
throw the fabric cemented with their youthful blood, and to draw 
its mighty ruins down upon their own heads at the last moment 
of their earthly existence. Would it be believed that this rem- 
nant of a noble race had been thus corrupted by such a bounty ? 
No, said Mr. W., they deserve not such a judgment at our hands. 
But, instruments of the executive ? How ? What has the 
executive to do with the payment of pensioners ? They derive 
their claims from the acts of Congress, not from the will and 
pleasure of the executive ; and if they make the proof requisite, 
the right is perfect. The President can neither place them upon 
the roll without the proof, nor debar them from it when the proof 
is made. His only interference with the subject is his approbation 
of the laws, as he approves other laws passed by Congress. As 
well, therefore, might all the private claimants, for whose benefit 



320 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

laws have been passed, be Imnted from the statute books and 
added to the list of 'supple instruments of power,' as these 
venerable pensioners of the revolution. 

" Fourth. Mr. W. said he now came to a class of office-holders 
and ' sui)ple instruments of power,' not less extraordinary than 
any of the former. It consisted of all the deputy-postmasters 
throughout the country, all the mail contractors, mail carriers, 
stage drivers, and all others employed in the transportation of 
the mail of the United States. The number was given in the 
report at 31,837 individuals. Here was a class of men, with 
several of whom every citizen of the country must be personally 
acquainted. He appealed, then, fearlessly and confidently to 
the people of the country for the degree of danger to public 
liberty to be apprehended from this class of dependents upon the 
public patronage. Who did not know that the postmasters and 
mail contractors of the country were of all parties in politics, 
and of every description of sentiment and feeling as to men and 
measures? Who, in these seats, did not know that the great 
mass of them were men of respectability, integrity and faithful- 
ness, and worthy of the trusts confided to them? Who, here- 
tofore, had feared the influence of these men upon the public 
opinion of the electors of the country ? Who, until this day, 
had imagined that the driver of a mail coach would injuriously 
influence the opinions of the passengers who might chance to ride 
in his carriage ? In this great mass of individuals there might 
be men unworthy of trust ; it would be strange if it were not so ; 
but did any man ever dream that they were so numerous as to 
endanger our government, or that the merry holder of the reins 
and whip of the vehicle which transports the mail over our pub- 
lic liighways was a 'supple instrument of power,' a subservient 
partisan, ' ready for every service, however base and corrupt,' 
because his monthly wages were paid to him by a mail con- 
tractor? Did any man ever permit himself to believe that the 
elections of the States were controlled by such men? No, said 
Mr. W., the idea is mistaken ; and the honorable committee have 
yielded themselves to fears which have no foundation, and to 
prophecies of evil wliich will not be realized. 

"He had then disposed of a very large proportion of this 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 321 

fearful array of more tliaii 100,000 persons dependent upon and 
receiving money from the government ; and by tliat means sup- 
posed to be made ' supple instruments of power,' ' subservient 
partisans, ready for every service however base and corrupt.' 

" 'The army, and persons employed under the superintendence of 

the War Department, were ... 16 , 722 

" ' The whole navy, including the marine corps, were 8,784 

" ' The whole pension roll were 38 , 836 

"'All the deputy postmasters, mail contractors, mail carriers, 
mail coach drivers, and all other persons connected with the 

transportation and distribution of the mail, were 31,837 

Making a total of 96, 179 ' 



"So far, Mr. W. said, he thought the intelligent citizens of 
this country would be able to estimate the dangers to be appre- 
hended from this alarming number of government dependents 
with great accuracy ; to value the benefits to themselves indivi- 
dually, and to the safety of the country and its institutions ; to 
appreciate the tribute of justice rendered to those who had first 
broken the yoke of despotism, and given us the liberty we enjoy, 
and to weigh the objections against, and the reasons for, a con- 
tinuance of the laws which had created these respective classes 
of officers, agents and dependents. 

" The table appended to the report of the committee, and from 
which he had derived the preceding classifications, showed that 
4,508 of this fearful array of 100,687 office-holders and dependents 
upon executive patronage remained to be accounted for. And 
here he found it necessary to notice an error in the addition of 
the table, by which the total number of persons intended to be 
exhibited, was less by 608 than the true number. Two items 
had been accidentally omitted, to wit : 119 persons employed in 
the Department of War in this city, and 489 pensioners upon the 
navy pension fund ; so that the aggregate presented by the com- 
mittee was 100,079, while the number in fact, as shown by their 
own table, was 100,687. Who, then, composed the remaining 
4,508 of these dangerous men, and 'supple instruments of 
power ?' 

"There appeared to be employed in the State department in 
21 



322 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

this city, and connected with and deriving their appointments 
from and through that department, 456 persons. This number 
Mr. W. said, he understood to include the department itself, all 
our foreign ministers, diplomatic agents, consuls and officers 
abroad of every description, and all the members of the federal 
Judiciary, district attorneys, marshals and all other officers con- 
nected with the courts. He surely need not say that the persons 
employed in an office here could have little influence over the 
public opinion of the voters of the States, the individuals them- 
selves not being entitled to a vote upon any national question, 
and their locations separating them from contact or associations 
with the citizens of the States. Much less could he consider it 
necessary to say that the officers and agents of the government 
abroad were not to be suspected of exercising a dangerous influ- 
ence over the opinions and wills of their fellow-citizens at home. 
There only remained, then, of this number, the federal judiciary, 
and their district attorneys and marshals, to excite alarm or 
create apprehension, 

" From the same table furnished by the committee, it would 
be found that 3,824 persons were employed in connection with the 
Treasury department. This number is understood to include all 
persons engaged in the collection of the customs, all persons 
engaged in the survey and sale of the public lands, and in every 
other branch of the Treasury department, including the depart- 
ment itself. Here, Mr. W. said, he met with a descrijjtion of officers 
toward whom the public attention had been particularly directed 
for the last year, as using their official situation to influence the elec- 
tors of their respective districts. The officers of the customs and 
of the land offices have been bi'oadly accused of these practices. 
Of the latter he knew nothing, but many of the former he knew 
personally and intimately. Every Senator must know personally 
a greater or less number of the officers of the customs, for every 
one must reside witliin some collection district. He called upon 
all, then, to state their knowledge of the malpractices of these 
officers, if such practices were known. For himself he should 
feel bound, as a sacred duty to his country, to present any such 
officer, if he was satisfied his conduct was unworthy of his trust ; 
much more if it was calculated to corrupt the public morals, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 323 

trammel the freedom of opinion of the electors, or endanger the 
liberties of the country. Would any Senator fail to pursue this 
course ? Surely not. Still we had heard no such presentments 
from anyquarter of the country ; and ought not this single fact 
to be taken as strong evidence that these sweeping denunciations 
of a party press, and of partisan politicians, were unmerited by 
the officers against whom they were directed ? Ought it not to 
be satisfactory evidence that our liberties are not endangered by 
these officers, so necessary and indispensable to the security of 
the revenue of the country? If this whole class of officers had 
become the ' supple instruments of power,' ' subservient partisans, 
ready for every service, however base and corrupt,' would not 
some Senator be able to name a single instance from the whole 
country; to present a single example to the public eye? Mr. W. 
said he could not feel alarm for the safety of the country while 
no single officer of the whole corps could be designated as guilty 
of the suppleness and subserviency which the committee seem to 
apprehend. So much for the persons employed in and connected 
with the Treasury department. 

"In the Department of War, 119 persons are employed, as 
shown by the table. This number, Mr. W. said, he supposed to 
include the topograjjhical bureau and the engineer corps; and he 
would inquire whether the principles and policy of this adminis- 
tration were such as to authorize the belief that an extension of 
the influence of this corps to the local and private interests of the 
citizens was intended ? Had not both, in the discouragements of 
works of internal improvement of a local character, a direct and 
powerful tendency to circumscribe the power and influence of 
these engineers, and to debar them from an interference with the 
local interests of the States ? Such would seem to him to be the 
fair and just conclusion. Of the danger to be apj^rehended from 
the influence, upon public opinion, to be exerted by pennons in 
the employ of the War department, in this city, he had nothing 
to add to his remarks in relation to persons similarly employed 
in the departments of which he had before spoken. 

" The same table showed twenty-nine persons in the employ of 
the Navy Department, and eighty persons in the employ of the 
General Post-office, in this district. They are principally humble 



324 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

clerks, at very moderate salaries, and, he doubted not, respectable 
and industrious men, faithfully earning the money paid to them; 
and if the liberties of this country remained until destroyed by 
them, he must be permitted to express an entire confidence that 
alarm now was ill-timed and uncalled for. 

" This, Mr. W. said, closed the fearful catalogue of office-holders 
and dependents, which had given to the report its sad and boding 
aspect; and, thus analyzed, he hoped the danger, impending or 
in prospect, would appear less to the good and peaceable citizens 
of the country than it had to the honorable committee. The 
whole might be summed up as follows: 

" ' The four classes first mentioned, to wit: the army and persons 
in civil employment under the superintendence of the Secre- 
tary of War, the navy and marine corps, the pensioners and 
the postmasters, and the persons employed in the transporta- 
tion of the mail 96, 179 

" ' The persons employed in and connected with the State depart- 
ment, including foreign ministers, consuls and commercial 
agents, the judges of the Supreme, district and circuit courts, 
the district attorneys, marshals, etc 456 

" ' The persons employed in and connected with the Treasury 
department, including all officers and persons emploj-ed in 
the collection of the customs and the revenue service, all 
officers and persons employed in the survey and sale of the 
public lands, etc., etc 3,834 

" ' The persons employed in and connected with the War depart- 
ment 119 

'• ' The persons employed in and connected with the Navy de- 
partment 29 

" ' The persons employed in and connected with the General 

Post-office 80 

" Making the aggregate, before given, of 100, 687 ' 

"Let these 100,000 individuals stand before the intelligent 
people of our country in their true character, and let them say 
how far they are likely to undermine and destroy their liberties. 
For himself, Mr. W. said he could feel no apprehension. He 
believed them, as a mass, an honor, and not a danger to the 
country; and so he thouglit they were, and wouM continue to 
be, viewed by the people. Here he would leave this most alarm- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. §25 

ing assumption of the committee, and proceed to examine another, 
not less erroneous. The committee assume, without attempting 
to prove, that those 100,000 office-liolders and dependents can 
influence and direct the will of the American people; can con- 
trol their action at the polls, and dictate the results of their free 
elections. Mr. President, said Mr. W., this is an assumption as 
violent as it is unfounded, and does great injustice to the inflexible 
integrity of our intelligent yeomanry. They, sir, controlled in 
the exercise of that right which they consider above all price, 
the right of ffivinof a vote for the man who is to rule over them, 
by office-holders, by soldiers, sailors, laborers in the employ of 
the government, mail contractors, mail carriers and coach drivers, 
or by pensioners! No, sir; never. The idea does injustice to 
their integrity and intelligence. They are controlled by no 
earthly power in their exercise of that dearest right of a freeman; 
and the supposition that they are, is, to use the mildest term, a 
mistake of the committee of a glaring character. The 13,000,000 
of free people of this country, controlled in their elections by a 
few thousand office-holders and dependents upon the government ! 
By a few of their own servants! No, sir. The American people 
"are not thus ' supple ' and ' subservient,' whatever may be the 
character of those who receive their favors and bounty. 

" But is it fair to presume, from any known facts, that those 
holding office and patronage are inclined to influence the people 
for evil to the country? Mr. W. said he knew of no evidence to 
warrant such an assumption. That, among the great numbers 
holding office, bad men might be found, was more than probable; 
but he believed the exceptions would be so few, if the whole 
number were taken into the account, as to prove that good men 
generally hold the office of trust, rather than to impeach the 
body of office-holders. This brought him to notice a third 
assumption of the committee, not less unfounded, in his judg- 
ment, and more violent and unjust than either of the former. 

" Mr. W. said he referred to the assumption found in the 
report, that offices are bestowed 'as rewards for partisan ser- 
vice, without respect to merit.' This broad charge appears upon 
the face of this paper wholly unsupported by proof, or by an 
attempt at proof, against whom ? Against a chief magistrate 



326 I"'^^ ^'^^^ TniES OF Silas Wright. 

elected by the people ; and, after an exercise of the appointing 
power for tlie term of four years, again re-elected by a much 
stronger expression of the public approbation than that which 
first elected him to the presidency. How, then, does this assump- 
tion comport with the respect we owe to the popular will ? To 
the judgment and intelligence of those we represent here ? To 
the free and intelligent people of this free country V But how, 
said Mr. W., are these office-holders selected by the chief magis- 
trate ? Upon the petitions and recommendations of the people 
themselves ; upon certificates of character, respectability and 
worth, made by those who are the neighbors and friends of the 
candidate, and know him personally and intimately ; and most 
usually upon the recommendation of the representatives here of 
the person appointed. Are we then to assume that offices are 
'bestowed as rewards for partisan services, without respect to 
merit ?' The people ask, the representative recommends, and 
the office is conferred, and who shall say that it is done ' without 
respect to merit ?' Surely this committee will not be sustained 
in making the assertion by that people whose will is followed in 
the appointments made, when the assertion rests upon itself 
alone, without an effort to support it by evidence. It is, Mr. 
President, said Mr. W., another of those mistakes into which 
the gloomy imaginations of the committee seem too frequently 
to have led them. These assl^mptions, as erroneous as they are 
unfounded, in his judgment appeared to him to constitute the 
reasons offered by the committee for the presentation of the bill 
now before the Senate. The abuses existing in the minds of the 
committee were those which had been examined, and the bill 
purported to provide for their correction for the future. 

"What, then, was the remedy proposed ? A law of 1820 had 
limited the terms of a large class of officers therein named to 
four years, and had thus compelled those officers once in that 
term, to pass in review before the President and Senate, when 
their characters and conduct, official and private, would of course 
be inquired into and examined, and when the state of their 
accounts with the government would be ascertained. This law, 
too, was calculated to secure the cardinal republican principle of 
rotation in office, by causing periodical expirations of official 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 327 

terms, when those who had enjoyed a I'easonable share of official 
jDatronage might give place to other citizens equally deserving, 
without resorting to the unpleasant alternative of a removal. 

" The first section of the bill reported by the committee, and 
now under consideration, proposes to repeal tliis law of 1820, 
and, by doing so, to make these offices perpetual or dei3endent 
alone upon the pleasure of the President. The latter would be 
the consequence, Avere it not that the third section of the bill 
virtually imposes restrictions upon the power of the President to 
remove from office ; and, taken in connection with the second 
section, would seem fairly to imply a design that the President 
shall remove for one cause alone — that of a defalcation in 
paying over or accounting for public moneys. If this be the 
tendency of this bill — and this, Mr. W. said, was his understand- 
ing — then its efl^ect will be to give to the country district attor- 
neys, marshals, collectors of the customs, naval officers, surveyors 
of the customs, navy agents, receivers of public moneys for lands, 
registers of the land offices, surveyors of the public lands, pay- 
masters of the army, and commissaries-general of purchases, for 
life, instead of the short term of four years ; and nothing can 
remove the officer but his becoming a public defaulter — a piece 
of official miscondvict of which several classes of these officers, 
such as naval officers, surveyors of the customs, registers of the 
land offices, and the like, cannot be guilty, because no public 
money comes to their hands. 

"And what, Mr. President, said Mr. W., is the assigned cause 
for this great and dangerous change in the law ? To destroy 
the patronage accruing to the chief magistrate by the simple 
renominations of these officers to the Senate once in the term of 
four years. Is Congress prepared to adopt such a remedy for 
such an evil ? Will the members of this House consent to create 
an army of officers for life in this government, for the single 
purpose of getting rid of the evil, if it be one, of the patronage 
conferred upon the executive power in their periodical reappoint- 
ment? Mr. W. said he could not think so. He viewed the first 
section of the bill, standing by itself, as a question of policy 
only ; but he must consider it contrary to the doctrines of the 
republican fathers, contrary to the genius of our free institutions, 



328 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

and contrary to the well-ascertained and well-established opinions 
of the great mass of the citizens of the United States, to adopt 
any measure of legislation calculated or intended to perpetuate 
office in the same hands. The offices of this government should 
not be life estates, but public trusts ; and to keep them so, they 
should retui-n frequently to the people, or to such of their agents 
and representatives as have the power, by the Constitution, to 
confer them. Without this, the salutary principle of rotation in 
office is gone, and we raise up an official aristocracy as dangerous 
to liberty as an hereditary one. 

" Mr. W. said he was not an advocate for executive power or 
official patronage. He would go as far as any one to limit such 
powers, where that could be done consistently with the Consti- 
tution, and a safe and salutary administration of the government; 
but to get rid of that portion of the executive patronage which 
consisted in the renomination to offices, the terras of which were 
now limited by law, and from which, as yet, he had seen no cause 
to feel alarm or apprehension, he could not agree to remove all 
limitation, and make the offices j)ermanent. It would, in his 
judgment, be an attempt to avoid a possible danger by the 
voluntary adoption of a great and certain evil. Such, Mr. W. 
said, were his views upon the first section of the bill, and, unless 
changed by what might be subsequently offered in its favor, he 
could not give it his support. 

" As to the second section, he had not a remark to make. He 
fully acquiesced in the principle it contained, that public default- 
ers should be hurled from office, and that a knowledge of the 
fact was sufficient ground for instantaneous removal. If any 
Senators sujDposed that legislation was necessary to secure the 
practical application of this principle, imperatively and promptly, 
to every officer of the government, he was not aware that he had 
any objection to make to this section. 

"His principal difficulty rested upon the third section of the 
bill. That section was in the following words : 

" ' Skc. 3. And be it further enacted. That in all nominations made by the 
President lo the Senate, to fill vacancies occasioned by removal from office, 
the fact of the removal shall be stated to the Senate at the same time that 
the nomination is made, with a statement of the reasons for such removal.' 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. §29 

" This provision in a law of Congress he believed to be in 
derogation of the Constitution of the United States, and he could 
not, therefore, give it his vote. He had before said he was not 
an advocate for executive power or official patronage, but he was 
an advocate for the Constitution, and for just so much power in 
every branch of the government as that instrument had granted, 
and for no more in any branch, either executive, legislative, or 
judicial. The section did not, in terms, deny the power in the 
President to remove from office, but it proposed limitations upon 
the exercise of the power equivalent to the denial of its existence 
as a constitutional grant of power. Mr. W. said the question 
was one of the first importance and magnitude, and he did not 
propose to argue it at the present time, but was bound to give 
the grounds of his opinion that the provision was unconstitutional. 

" The Constitution has said ' the executive power shall be vested 
in a President of the United States of America.' This he under- 
stood to vest in the President all the executive power pertaining 
to the government of the United States, and not otherwise 
granted by the Constitution. He understood the power of 
appointment to office and the power of removal from office, to 
be executive powers, and, therefore, to be vested in the President 
by this general grant, unless some other provisions of the Con- 
stitution shall be found to take them from him, or to divide them 
between him and some other department of the government. 
What other provisions bear upon the question ? The two fol- 
lowing : 

" ' 1st. He (the President) shall nominate, and, by and with the advice 
and consent of the Senate shall appoint, ambassadors, other public ministers 
and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the 
United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, 
and which shall be established by law. 

" ' 2d. But the Congress may, by law, vest the appointment of such infe- 
rior officers as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of 
law or in the heads of departments.' 

" If, then, Mr, W. said, he was right in supposing that the 
power of appointment was an executive power, its existence in 
the President was qualified by the negative of the Senate, con- 
ferred by the clause first above quoted, and he could nominate, 



330 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

but could not appoint, but ' by and with the advice and consent 
of the Senate.' Still nothing in this clause affected the power to 
remove from office, unless by implication, of which he should 
have occasion liereafter to speak; and, therefore, that power, not- 
witlistanding this clause, remained in the President by virtue of 
tlie general grant, perfected and unqualified. 

" But the clause second above quoted might be held to qualify 
this power of removal, and therefore he referred to it to show 
that it did not affect the bill under consideration, or obviate its 
unconstitutionality. That clause gives to the Congress the power, 
by law, ' to vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they 
think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law or in the 
heads of departments.' It has been and may further be con- 
tended that this qualification of the executive power of appoint- 
ment may also qualify the power of removal; and that when 
' the Congress may, by law, vest the appointment of such inferior 
officers as they think proper in the President alone, in the courts 
of law, or in the heads of departments,' they may presci'ibe the 
causes for and restrictions upon, the removals of the officers so 
to be appointed in conformity, not to the Constitution, but to the 
law. Mr. W. said he did not find it necessary to discuss this 
point, as the third section of the bill before him reached the 
removal of all officers, superior and inferior, and alike required 
from the President the causes of the removal, whether the office 
was of the one grade or the other. The provision proposed by 
the committee made no distinction between an ambassador or 
other public minister or consul, or a judge of the Supreme Court, 
the officers enumerated in the Constitution, a superior officer, a 
member of the cabinet, and an inferior officer, a surveyor of the 
customs, ' established by law.' 

"Again, the Congress had not yet, by law, vested the appoint- 
ment of any of the officers named in tlie first and second sections 
of the bill, 'in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in 
the heads of departments;' and, until they had done this, the 
second clause referred to could have no operation to restrict the 
power of removal conferred upon the President by the Constitu- 
tion; that power, like the power of nomination, remaining in him 
under the constitutional grant as to all officers 'which shall be 



Life and Times of Stlas Wright. 331 

established by law,' until the Congress think proper to vest the 
appointment of inferior officers in himself alone, in the courts of 
law, or in the heads of departments, and to affix by law the 
causes for and the restrictions upon the removal of the officers 
so to be appointed. 

" Neither of these qualifications upon the executive power 
granted to the President, then, Mr. W. said, seemed to reach 
the provision contained in the third section of the bill of the 
committee, and he was left to inquire whether any implication, 
from the executive power granted to the Senate, authorized the 
legislation proposed ? The grant to the Senate, made in the Con- 
stitution, was to advise and consent to nominations made by the 
President, or to refuse that advice and consent; and it had been 
argued by the honorable Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Web- 
ster] that this power necessarily drew after it the advice and 
consent of the Senate to removals from office. That honorable 
gentleman had stated that he had examined the practice of the 
government, and that the only removal was the appointment of 
another to fill the place of the person removed. His argument 
was understood to be that, as the ai»pointment of A. to fill the 
office of B., removed, was the only removal of B., therefore the 
appointment of A. was the removal of B., and the appointment 
of A. requiring the advice and consent of the Senate, this body 
must also be held as advising and consenting to the removal of B. 

" Mr. W. said he had not examined the practice of the govern- 
ment in this respect, and therefore he could not say whether or 
not it had been customary, in cases of removals from office, to 
issue a supersedeas, the uniform practice, as he believed, in his 
own State; but he would ask the honorable Senator whether it 
had ever been supposed, when the President nominated A. to an 
office in the place of B., removed, the rejection of the nomination 
of A. by the Senate restored B. to the office from which he had 
thus been removed by the President ? Did not the Senate know 
that, in case of such rejection, the office had always, from the 
commencement of the government under the Constitution, been 
held to be vacant, and the President bound to continue to 
nominate to the Senate until he found a person to whose aj^point- 
ment they would advise and consent ? Had he ever heard of an 



332 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

incumbent, thus removed, returning to the duties of his office in 
consequence of the rejection by the Senate of the nomination of 
his successor ? Mr. W. said he was confident in the assertion 
that tlie history of the government furnished no instance of such 
a claim to office, or of such an exercise of official powers. How, 
then, could the gentleman contend that the advice and consent of 
the Senate to the appointment of a successor had been held to be 
also an advice and consent to the removal of the incumbent ? If 
the Senate did not advise and consent, the removal had ever been 
held to be perfect, and the office vacant; and therefore that 
advice and consent, when yielded, could not be held to make the 
removal. So much, Mr. W. said, for the argument in favor of 
the implied executive power existing in the Senate, to participate 
with the President in removals from office. It had not existed 
in the practice of the government ; it did not exist in the Con- 
stitution; and he would leave it to those who made out the claim 
to point out its derivation. 

" He would again say that it was not his object to argue these 
great constitutional questions, and he had said thus much to 
declare his distinct and clear opinions. He held the power of 
removal from office to be an executive power, in the clear and 
universally admitted classification of governmental powers. As 
an executive power, he held it to be vested in the President by 
the broad grant of that power contained in the Constitution, 
because no qualification found in that instrument, and no action 
of Congress under it, granting power to regulate the appointment 
of inferior officers, had taken it from him, as connected with the 
third section of the bill before the Senate. 

" Could Congress, then, by law, require from the President his 
reasons for an act performed in pursuance of the power granted 
to him by the Constitution ? He could not think it would be 
pretended. As well might Congress declare, by law, that the 
President should send, with every nomination he makes to this 
body, the reasons why he has selected the individual named. As 
well might Congress declare, by law, that the Senate should make 
a statement to the President of the reasons for their action upon 
his nomination. Each acts in the exercise of an independent 
constitutional power expressly conferred, and neither is responsi- 



Life and Tibies of Silas Wright. 333 

ble to the other for their action, but both are responsible to the 
people and the States. 

"So, in making removals from office, the President, if he has 
the ^Kjwer at all, possesses it as an express grant of the Constitu- 
tion, and he is responsible to Congress for its exercise in no other 
way than by impeachment, and then the causes should be assigned, 
if assigned at all, to the impeaching and not to the trying branch 
of Congress. He, therefore, could not view the section in any 
other light than as a direct and palpable violation of the consti- 
tutional powers and rights of the executi\e, and, as such, he 
must oppose its passage. He would not, however, consume more 
of the time of the Senate, at this late stage of the session, in 
foi'tifying his position. He would content himself with the fact 
that the first Congress ever convened under the Constitution had 
deliberately decided these questions of executive power as he now 
contended they existed. That Congress consisted of a large 
number, among others, of the f ramers of the Constitution — men 
more competent than any other to form correct opinions as to its 
intended grants of power. It had been well said, by the honor- 
able Senator from Ohio [Mr. Ewing], that this decision was made 
before the formation of political parties under the government, 
and at a time when political partisan feeling could not have 
influenced the judgment of those who pronounced the opinion 
that the power of removal from office was an executive power, 
and was vested in the President. If proof of this fact, stronger 
than any other, could be required, it would be found in the 
record of that debate, which shows James Madison, the most 
distinguished democrat, and Fisher Ames, the most distinguished 
federalist, in that Congress, combining their unsurpassed talents 
and powers of eloquence in favor of the decision. Gen. Washing- 
ton, then President of the United States, and the president of the 
convention which formed the Constitution, claimed and exercised 
this power during the whole of his administration. The elder 
Adams exercised it after him. The immortal Jefferson, the father 
of democracy, also claimed and exercised it freely during the 
eight years of his administration. Aftei- him, James Madison 
and James Monroe exercised it for the period of sixteen years. 
The younger Adams then exercised it during his presidential 



334 ^^^^ ^-^^ TuiES OF Stlas Weight. 

term, and the present chief magistrate followed the examples 
thus set for him until the last year, without an intimation of a 
doubt as to the existence of the power as a constitutional grant. 

" Mr. W. said he would not remark further upon this point. 
If o-entlemen would show him that tlie power of removal was not 
an executive power, it might then be competent for them to 
charo-e him and his friends with attempting to claim power in 
the President by implication from the Constitution, and not from 
express grant. He was the advocate for no implied powers in 
any department of the government. He held this to be an execu- 
tive power, expressly granted in the broad grant of that power 
to the President. So the Congress of 1789 had decided it to be, 
and so the practice of the government, for almost fifty years, 
under the Constitution, had uniformly treated it, without debate 
or question. 

" He had now completed what he had proposed to say. His 
principal object had been to examine the facts from which the 
committee had drawn their frightful picture of danger to the 
country from executive patronage, and to point out what appeared 
to him their almost unmeasured exaggerations of inference and 
conclusions from their own premises. This he had considered it 
a duty he owed to himself, to the Senate, and to the country, to 
do, and he had made the attempt, whether successful or not, the 
Senate would decide. He would merely add what he had before 
repeated, that he saw no cause for the great and peculiar alarm 
expressed in the report; he felt not that alarm himself, nor could 
he believe, if it had foundation, that we were to discharge our- 
selves and the country from it by making perpetual terms of 
office of all the officers who must receive their appointments upon 
the nomination of the President, and whose terms of office were 
now limited by law. Such a remedy would increase, but could 
not quiet his alarm." 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 335 



Chapter LI. 

EXPUNGING THE SENATE RESOLUTIONS CONDEMNING 

GEN. JACKSON. 

The proceedings of the Senate condemning the President 
for dismissing Secretary Duane, and removing the public 
deposits from the Bank of tlie United States, have been 
given in a previous chapter. On tlie 18th of February, 
1835, Col. Benton offered a resolution to expunge from 
the Senate journals the resolution condemning the action 
of the President on those subjects, "because the said 
resolution is illegal and unjust, of evil example, indefinite 
and vague, expressing a criminal charge without specifi- 
cation, and as irregular and unconstitutionally adopted 
by the Senate, in subversion of the rights of defense 
which belonged to an accused and impeached officer, and 
at a time and under circumstances to involve peculiar 
injury to the political rights and pecuniary interests of 
the people of the United States." On the third of March 
this resolution was laid upon the table, on motion of Mr. 
Webster, by a vote of 27 to 20. Col. Benton thereupon 
again presented it, giving notice he should call it up 
during the second week of the next session. It was at 
that time called up, but not acted upon, further than 
Col. Benton adding a long preamble. The resolution was 
finally discussed and acted upon, and passed January, 
16, 1837, by a vote of 24 to 19 — a strictly party vote. 
Whereupon the journal was brought into the Senate, and 
the Secretary drew black lines around the resolution, as 
there recorded, and wrote in bold letters across the face, 
"Expunged, by order of the Senate, this 16tli day of 
January, in the year of our Lord 1837." 



-336 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Mr. Wright made no formal speech upon this ques- 
tion, although a thorough supporter of the measure. He 
contented Inmself with presenting the resolutions of the 
Legislature of the State of New York, instructing the 
Senators in Congress "to use their best efforts to pro- 
cure the passage of a resolution, during the present ses- 
sion of Congress, directing the aforesaid resolution to be 
expunged from the Journal of the Senate of the United 
States," and voting with his colleague, Mr. Tallmadge, 
for the preamble and resolution. In this manner the 
senatorial condemnation of President Jackson was swept 
from the records of the Senate, in conformity with the 
undoubted approbation of a majority of the American 
people. The effort of political opponents to crush Gen. 
Jackson by a senatorial ex parte condemnation signally 
failed in its object, while those actually engaged in it 
keenly felt this novel mode of rebuke. 

"Canton, lUh April, 1835. 

"My Dear Friend. — Your letter, of the first inst., came to me 
several days since, and my engagements have not allowed me 
time to answer it until now. I am most glad to be able to say 
to you, with truth, that it was as welcome as it was unexpected. 
My brother told me, when at home, that you wished to see me, 
and had my stay allowed me time, I should have called to see 
you ; but I had been from home so long, and was so fearful of 
being further delayed by the state of the ice in the lake, if I did 
not hasten on, that I did not even give myself time to see my 
eldest sister, and did not make a call out of my father's family. 

" The claims which constitute the subject of difficulty between 
our government and France, at the present time, have grown out 
of seizures and confiscations of American vessels and cargoes, 
made under what were called the Berlin and Milan decrees, and 
other decrees of the French government, previous to, and at about 
the time of, the late war. By a treaty made between France and 
the United States, in 1832, and duly ratified by both governments, 
the amount of these claims was settled at 25,000,000 francs (a 



Life and 2'imes of Silas Wright. §37 

little less than $5,000,000), and France agreed to pay the amount 
in annual installments, with interest, I think, at four per cent. 
When the iirst payment became due our government made a 
draft upon them for it, which was presented at tlie French 
Treasury and was not paid, because their Legislature had appro- 
priated no money to make the payment. The subject was then 
immediately laid before that government by ours, and was, by 
the King, laid before their Legislature. That body refused to 
make the appropriation, alleging various reasons for doing so, 
but principally that their government had, by the treaty, agreed 
to pay too much, and that the treaty itself was not binding, 
until the Legislature had sanctioned it by the payment of the 
money, or by making the appropriation to pay. 

" The King assumed to be very anxious for the fulfillment of 
the treaty, and to regret the action of the Legislature, and gave 
every assurance that the appropriation would be made at the 
next legislative session. Under these circumstances the Presi- 
dent let the subject rest, and did not make any communication 
to Congress about it. Another session of the French Legislature 
took place. A bill was laid before the body at a late day in the 
session and was not acted u))on. Our minister at Paris was then 
dii-ected to inform the French government that the appropriation 
must be made before the then next meeting of Congress, or that 
the President would feel himself bound to lay the whole matter 
before that body. He was given to understand that the French 
Legislature would meet in July, and that then the subject would 
be attended to. They did meet in July, and the subject of the 
appropriation was not laid before them at all, but they were 
adjourned to meet a month later in the fall than usual, on the 
twenty-ninth instead of the first of December. 

" Under these circumstances the President sent his last annual 
message to Congress, Avhich you have no doubt read. 

" The French now pretend to say the message is an attempt to 
threaten and frighten them to make the payment, and, therefore, 
that they cannot pay consistently with their honor. Thus the 
matter now stands, as I understand the brief history of the case. 

" I have not, as yet, doubted that, after a flourish about courage 
and honor, they would pay the money. I still think they will, 
22 



338 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

though the last mail brought me the news of another change of 
ministry, and how that may affect the legislative action upon the 
appropriation, I am unable to say. I think unfavorably. 

"I was much concerned to learn, from my brother, that you 
had not recovered your health, and, from the length of time you 
have been on a decline, I greatly fear your constitution is perma- 
nently impaired. Nothing could have given me more pleasure 
than your reference to our school-boy days. I have long known, 
from my own feelings, that no friendships formed in life, and not 
connected with the relationships of society, are so strong, so pure, 
and so disinterested as those which grow out of our associations 
in childhood, before the cares of the world take possession of the 
mind. I have been for many years far removed from those who 
were my associates at that period. I have formed many acquaint- 
ances and associations since those were formed, but none are 
remembered with the same freshness of feeling, and none cling 
so closely around the heart ; I had supposed, however, that my 
absence from those companions had continued the recollections 
more strongly in my mind, while their enjoyment of each other's 
society to the present time, without much change of place or 
associates, would have made them almost forget those who had 
left them. Your letter affords me the best evidence that it is not 
so, but that you, too, retain those remembrances and all the 
friendship which grow out of the associations. 

" I am not a professor of religion, but you must not think so 
badly of me as to suppose that I am unwilling to have the sub- 
ject pressed upon my attention by pure and disinterested friends. 
Much less must you permit yourself to believe that the knowledge 
that you remember me in your prayers to the Giver of Life, and 
upon your knees entreat mercy and forgiveness and eternal hap- 
piness for me, either offends or displeases me. I know and feel 
that that man who is a practical Christian is a better citizen, a 
better friend and a happier man, and the good wishes of such 
men, if I know myself, are most valuable to my feelings. I beg 
you, therefore, not for one moment to afflict yourself with the 
fear that you can loose my friendship by letters breathing this 
kindness and good will, and pure and ardent friendship which is 
found in every line of your letter before me. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 339 

" I hope I may hear from you often, when your health and 
your time shall permit you to write, and when I shall be able, 
nothing will give me greater pleasure than to answer your letters. 

"My health is perfectly good, and when at home I am not 
usually very much pressed with business. You do not mention 
the subject of your health, but may I not hope it is on the gain ? 
Such, at any rate, is the ardent wish of 

" Your sincere friend, 

" SILAS WRIGHT, Jr. 
" MiLO Stow, Esq." 



340 L^^^^ ^^^^ Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter LII. 

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 

The question of the abolition of slavery in the United 
States has been more or less agitated from the early days 
of the Union. Few claimed that Congress was clothed 
with power to abolish it in the several States. But it was 
largely insisted that they could do so in the District of 
Columbia, where, under the Constitution, they are author- 
ized "to exercise exclusive legislation in 'all cases what- 
soever." The abolitionists, with ceaseless energy, pur- 
sued their objects, one of which was to create agitation 
and extend excitement. This could be done with refer- 
ence to the District, where the Constitution presented no 
barriers. Numerous petitions were presented in both 
houses of Congress, demanding the abolition of slavery 
in the District. These were more or less discussed, and 
produced heated opposition from those representing 
slaveholding States. 

In the House, this class of petitions, in 1836, were 
referred to a select committee, consisting of Messrs. 
Pinckney, of South Carolina, chairman; Hamer, of Ohio; 
Pierce, of New Hampshire; Hardin, of Kentucky; Jarvis, 
of Maine; Owens, of Georgia; Muhlenburgh, of Pennsyl- 
vania; Dromgoole, of Virginia, and Turrill, of New 
York. This committee made a report on the 18th of 
May, 1836, which occuj)ied an hour and a half in the 
reading. It closed with these resolutions : 

" Resolved, That Congress possesses no constitutional authority 
to interfere in any way with the institution of slavery in any of 
the States of this confederacy. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 341 

" Resolved, That Congress ought not to interfere in any way 
with slavery in the District of Columbia; and, 

" WJierea^, it is extremely important and desirable that the 
agitation of this subject should be finally arrested for the pur- 
pose of restoring tranquillity to the public mind, your committee 
respectfully recommend the adoption of the following additional 
resolution, viz. : 

" Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, resolutions, proposi- 
tions, or papers, relating in any way, or to any extent whatso- 
ever, to the subject of slavery, or the abolition of slavery, shall, 
without being either printed or referred, be laid upon the table, 
and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon." 

This report, although presented by the chairman, was 
nnderstood by the committee to have been drawn by the 
member from New York, while it is known to the author 
to have been prepared by Mr. \Yright, and spoke his 
sentiments and those of Mr. Van Buren's friends 
generally. 

On the 19th of January, 1836, the Senate proceeded to 
consider a petition from sundry citizens of Ohio to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia. A question ^vas 
raised by Mr. Calhoun whether it "shall be received," 
which he and others had discussed, but no direct vote 
upon it is found. Other like petitions were presented 
and considered with the one from Ohio. Mr. Buchanan 
moved to amend the other motions, and to "reject the 
prayer of the petition," which prevailed, 34 to 6, every 
Senator, except Davis, Hendrichs, Knight, Prentiss, 
Swift and Webster, voting aye. 

Mr. Wright addressed the Senate, at length, on Mr. 
Calhoun's motion not to receive the petition. The final 
action of that body on the question seems to be in 
harmony with the views presented by him, which were 
as follows : 

" Mr. Wright said he considered it to be his duty to trouble 
the Senate with a very few remarks before the pending question 



342 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

was put. He did so with extreme reluctance, arising from the 
deepest conviction that this whole subject had better not have 
been debated at all; that these petitions had better have been 
suffered to take their usual course, the course they had taken 
every year Avhen he had been a member of either House of Con- 
gress; the course of other petitions, of being permitted to be 
read at the clerk's table, and referred to the appropriate com- 
mittee. His reluctance was greatly, and perhaps he might say 
principally, increased by the consciousness that the whole subject 
was surrounded with difficulties; that it was excitable in every 
aspect; that the different sections of the Union were liable to 
different affections from the expression of the same sentiment; 
and that some unmeasured phrase, or some imprudent remark 
might fall from him, which, unintentionally on his part, might 
increase rather than allay excitement, in the one portion or the 
other of the country. 

" Yet he felt that he should not discharge the duty incumbent 
upon him, or properly represent his constituents, if he permitted 
this question to be decided without saying anything. Had he 
been able, otherwise, to content himself to give a silent vote, 
he could not do so now, since the extracts read by the honorable 
Senator from Virginia [Mr. Leigh] from the late publication of 
the Rev. Dr. Channing, a book he had never seen, and of the 
contents of which he was wholly ignorant, any farther than the 
very limited quotations of that honorable Senator had made him 
acquainted with them. He was prepared, however from those 
extracts alone, to say, that however distinguished, however pure, 
however pious, and however well intended the author of that work 
might be, in issuing to the public such a book, he had shown him- 
self as ignorant of the opinions and feelings of the great mass of 
tlie citizens of the non-slaveholding States as he had, in the 
quotations made, of the merits and virtues of the people of the 
south. He, Mr. W., was ready to pronounce, in his place, that 
the publication, in the spirit in which it seemed to be written, as 
grossly abused the northern feeling as its language did the 
southern morals. 

" When such representations of the sentiment of the north 
come from such sources, it was incumbent upon him to convince 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 348 

the Senator from Virginia, the Senate and the public, that a 
belief in them as the sentiments of the non-slaveholding States, 
would be doing violent injustice to those States, and to the 
patriotism and opinions of their citizens. 

" Mr. W. said he was not to discuss the subject of slavery in 
the abstract. He knew it, and the people of the north, as a body, 
knew it only as it existed under the Constitution of the United 
States, and was sanctioned by it. They thought of it in that 
light, and in that light only, so far as its existence in these States 
is concerned, and so far as the quiet of the country and the pre- 
servation of the Union are involved in any agitation of the sub- 
ject. In that sense, it was not a question for discussion in that 
body. 

"Neither, said Mr. W., was he to debate the question of 
slavery in the sovereign States of this Union. The sacred and 
invaluable compact which constitutes us one people, had not 
given to Congress the jurisdiction over that question. It was 
left solely and exclusively to those States, and, in his humble 
judgment, it ought never to be debated here in any manner 
whatever. 

" Mr. W. said he would go farther and say that he did not 
purpose to trouble the Senate with a discussion upon the pro- 
priety of any action on the part of Congress in reference to the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, or in regard to 
the constitutional power of Congress over that subject. He had 
listened with pleasure and profit to the able argument of the 
honorable Senator from Virginia [ Mr. Leigh] upon the powers 
of Congress, and had marked his concessions of power equal to 
that possessed by the Legislatures of the respective States of 
Maryland and Virginia over the same subject within those States. 
He had not studied the question himself, because he was able to 
mark out his own course, with perfect satisfaction to his own 
mind, without examining either the constitutional powers of 
Congress, or the powers of those State Legislatures. He was 
ready to declare his opinion to be that Congress ought not to act 
in this matter but upon the impulse of the two States surround- 
ing the District, and then in a manner pi-ecisely graduated by the 
action of those States upon the same subject. Had the Con- 



344 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

slitution, in terms, given to Congress all power in the matter, 
this would, with his present views and feelings, be his opinion of 
the expedient rule of action ; and entertaining this opinion, an 
examination into the power to act had been unnecessary to 
determine his vote upon the prayer of these petitions. He was 
ready promptly to reject their prayer, and he deeply regretted 
that he was not permitted so to vote without debate. 

" The refusal to receive the petitions, Mr. W. said, was, to his 
mind, a very different question. That was the question now pre- 
sented. If the refusal should be sanctioned by the Senate, upon 
the broad ground of the subject prayed for, and not upon the 
distinct objection of indecorous language or matter in the peti- 
tion itself, it would be considered and felt, in many sections of the 
country, as a denial of the constitutional right to petition, and, 
as such, would be infinitely more calculated to produce and 
increase, than to allay excitement. The prompt rejection of the 
prayer of tliese petitions would express the sense of the Senate 
in the most marked and decisive manner against the objects of 
the petitioners. The refusal to receive the petitions would raise 
a new issue, infinitely more favorable, as he deeply feared, to the 
schemes of these mad incendiaries than all which had o-one before 
this proposed step. 

" He entreated, he said, his brethren of the south to reflect 
before they gave this immense advantage to the agitators. He 
was aware that tlie southern feeling must be sensitive, perhaps 
beyond his ability to estimate, upon this subject of domestic 
slavery. The constitutional rights, the personal and private 
interests, the domestic peace and domestic security of the people 
of the slaveholding States, compelled them to feel deeply and 
keenly upon every agitation of this delicate question. He could 
not be insensible to the existence of these feelincrs, or to their 
justice. Yet, might he not appeal to members of this body from 
those States, and ask them to remember that excitement, growing 
out of the same subject, was also prevailing in the non-slavehold- 
ing States ? Tliat the public mind in those States had become 
aroused to the subject ? That a limited number of individuals, 
from what motives he would not attempt to say, were making it 
their calling and business to inci-ease that excitement, and to 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 345 

make it universal ? And miglit he not claim that the action of 
the Senate should be such as would be most likely to calm the 
excitement in all the States and in every section of the Union ? 

"What, then, Mr. W. asked, was the action most likely to 
produce this result — a result, he must believe, most highly 
desired by every member of the Senate ? To answer this inquiry 
he must detain the Senate with a short examination of the true 
state of public opinion in the non-slaveholding States, in relation 
to the movements of the abolitionists, as manifested and pub- 
lished to the world, since the last adjournment of Congress. He 
should confine his statements upon this point to the State which 
he had the honor, in part, to represent here, because his informa- 
tion in reference to that portion of the north was more minute 
and authentic, and because he was satisfied that the general feel- 
ing of the citizens of his State upon this point was equally the 
general feeling of all the non-slaveholding States. 

"He would then say that he did not know of a single meeting 
of citizens in his State, convened for the purpose of considering 
the civil and political condition of the country, during the whole 
summer and autumn now last past, of whatever political party 
the meeting might be, one single instance, to which he should 
have occasion hereafter to refer, being alone excepted, which had 
not made the most distinct and firm expressions against the 
efforts of these agitators. In addition to this evidence of the 
almost entire feeling of the citizens of the State, obtained from 
these ordinary assemblages of citizens, he need only remind the 
Senate, to bring the fact to the distinct recollection of every 
member of the body, that immense public meetings, composed 
of men of all grades, of talent and influence, of all parties in 
politics, and of all sects in religion, had been held in almost every 
populous town in New York, for the express purpose of giving 
to the country, and especially to their brethren of the south, the 
public sentiment and public reprobation of the efforts of the few 
fanatics, whose exertions to agitate the question of slavery were 
considered as infringing upon the constitutional rights of the 
slaveholding States, as calculated to disturb the peace of those 
States, and, what was considered of infinitely more importance, 
to endanger the harmony and perpetuity of the Union. The 



346 Life and Times oi Silas Wright. 

expressions of these meetings, Mr. W. said, had neither been 
weak nor equivocal. They had breatlied a spirit of patriotism, 
of generous feeling toward their brethren of the south, and of 
attachment to the Union, which he was sure his southern friends 
would appreciate and reciprocate. 

" It became now his duty, and he performed it with no small 
degree of mortification, to speak of the exception to which he 
had referred. All within the hearing of his voice would recollect 
that, during the summer or fall, notice was given to the public 
of a State convention of abolitionists, to be held at the city of 
Utica, in the State of New York, in tlie month of October last, 
according to his present recollection of the time. The notice 
appeared formidable from the array of names appended to it, 
they being several hundreds in number, and exhibiting among 
them a large proportion of the names of preachers of the gospel 
of peace. It gave him unfeigned pleasure to say that time 
proved that many of these names, and those of individuals by no 
means the least respectable in character and standing and influ- 
ence, had been appended to the notice without the consent or 
authority of the persons whose names they were, and, in many 
instances, in open and direct opposition to the wishes and feel- 
ings of the individuals. 

"Still, the notice had the effect of causing delegates to be 
appointed to attend the proposed convention, from too many 
places in the State, and the design of holding the convention was 
persevered in. A short time before the day fixed for assembling 
this body of agitators, application on their behalf was made to 
the municipal authorities of the city of Utica, for leave to use a 
public building within the city, erected at the expense of the 
citizens of the town, as the place for the meeting of the convention. 
Through an excess of complaisance, or a mistaken feeling of 
indulgence, the required permission was given by the common 
council of the city. No sooner was this fact made known to the 
citizens than a public meeting was called, and resolutions of the 
most distinct and decisive character passed, declaring that the 
public building in question, erected at their expense and for their 
use, should not be prostituted to so mischievous a purpose, and 
that the proposed convention should not occupy it. This meeting 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 347 

was a voluntary assemblage of the inhabitants of the town, and 
of course unauthoritative ; but to make themselves sure of their 
object, and to carry their resolves into certain effect, the meeting 
was adjourned to reassemble in the same public building pro- 
posed to be occupied by the abolition convention, and on the 
same day when that convention was to meet. At an early hour of 
the day designated the public building in question was filled with 
the citizens of the town, and not an abolitionist was known to 
enter it. Soon, however, the assemblage was informed that the 
proposed convention was assembling at a church in the vicinity, 
for the purpose, as it was believed, of showing, upon paper, the 
proceedings of a State convention of that character. A commit- 
tee, consisting of twenty-five members, selected from the most 
respectable and influential inhabitants of the town, was instantly 
appointed, and instructed by the meeting of citizens to repair to 
the church and inform the convention of the wishes and determi- 
nation of the inhabitants of Utica, that their city should not be 
made the head-quarters for their mischievous movements. The 
committee obeyed the order of the meeting; made their way into 
the church, and announced their errand and their instructions to 
the assembled convention, when, fortunately for the peace of the 
community, the convention dispersed, without attempting to pro- 
ceed with their business. 

" Such, Mr. W. said, substantially, was the history which had 
been given to him, by eye-witnesses of the most respectable 
character, of the attempt to hold a State convention of abolition- 
ists at Utica, and of its results ; and for the credit of his usually 
orderly and peaceable constituents, he wished he could stop here 
and give the full evidences of the feeling manifested on that 
occasion. The whole truth, however, went further ; and he 
believed it due to the present occasion to give the whole truth. 
During the night of the day on which the convention had been 
thus dispersed, he had been further informed that some dis- 
orderly persons forced their way into a printing office in Utica, 
supposed to be owned by some of the agitators, and certainly 
devoted to their cause, and committed depredations upon the 
property of the office; among other acts of violence throwing 
the types into the street. These persons, for this offense, had 



348 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

been brought before the magistracy, and put under recognizance 
to appear at the then next court to be held for the county, and 
answer for the act. Recent information told him they had 
appeared; that their cases had been presented to the grand jury, 
and that that jury, acting upon their oaths, had reported no bills 
against them. 

"There was one further fact, Mr. W. said, he ought not to 
omit, in giving the evidences of the correct state of public 
opinion, elicited by this attempt to hold an abolition State con- 
vention at Utica. One member of the committee of twenty-five 
appointed by the citizens to repair, and who did repair to the 
church and aid in dispersing this convention, was, at the time, 
before the people as a candidate for the State Senate. In about 
two weeks from the time of the transactions he had detailed, the 
name of tliis gentleman was presented at the polls throughout his 
Senate district, a district comprising from 250,000 to 300,000 of 
the population of the State, and not a shadow of opj^osition was 
made against his election from any quarter. Could this have 
happened if these agitators had possessed any hold upon the feel- 
ings of that people, the very people among whom they had pro- 
posed to raise the standard and commence their proceedings as 
a State society ? Most assuredly it could not. 

"Again: another individual of that committee was a dis- 
tinguished member of the New York delegation in the other 
branch of Congress, and information just received announced 
his appointment by the Legislature of the State, by a strong, an 
almost unanimous vote, to the highly responsible and important 
office of Attorney-General of the State. Such had already been 
the expressions of public opinion as to two of the members of the 
committee of the citizens of Utica, who were put forward, at an 
important moment, to suppress the agitators. Could there be 
anything equivocal in expressions like these ? Would the honor- 
able Senator from Virginia, would any member of the Senate, or 
any citizen of the country, after such manifestations, permit their 
confidence in the soundness of the public feeling at the north 
to be shaken by such a publication as that referred to from Dr. 
Channing ? He could not think they would. He most earnestly 
hoped they would not. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 349 

"Mr. W. said, he had mentioned these facts, and he miglit 
mention many others of a somewhat similar character, to show 
that the determined feeling of resistance to these dangerous and 
Avicked agitators in the north had already reached a point above 
and beyond the law, and, if left to its own voluntary action, deci- 
sive of the fate of abolitionism in that quarter. Why, he wovild 
ask, were such manifestations of feeling found among those who 
were wholly uninterested in slave property ? The answer was 
single and palpable. Their attachment to the Constitution and 
the Union prompted it, and, if left to govern themselves, by that 
attachment, there was no cause to apprehend danger. He 
appealed, then, in the kindest manner, and with great confidence, 
to the representatives of the slave-holding States, to say whether 
it was now desirable, whether it was now wise, to attempt to 
force tliis feeling further? 

"For himself, Mr. W. said, he must say he considered it 
immensely important that the action of the Senate should be 
calm and considerate; that nothing should be done rashly; that 
no stej) should be taken which could by any, the most sensitive, 
be considered violent. He must repeat, that any such action 
would put a weapon into the hands of the agitators more power- 
ful, and mucli more to be feared, than all their efforts of a volun- 
tary character. Such, he most deeply feared, would be a vote of 
the Senate, that petitions upon this subject, Avithout regard to 
their language and character, should not be received by the body. 
He was not disposed, at the present time, even to discuss the 
question of the extent of the constitutional right to petition Con- 
gress, so strongly did he feel that discussion or debate of any 
sort upon this topic could produce only unmixed evil to every 
portion of the country. He was willing, for his present purpose, 
to place the question of reception or rejection upon the ground 
taken by the honorable Senator from Virginia [Mr. Leigh], and 
to consider it as a question of mere expediency; and he hoped 
that, in that sense, he had said enough to satisfy every member 
of the Senate that there would be great danger in the course 
proposed by the motion under consideration. Witliout discuss- 
ing the question, he thought every Senator would concede that 
a general impression prevailed among our whole people, of every 



350 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

portion of the Union, that the right to petition Congress, in 
respectful terms :in<.l a respectful manner, was one of the broad- 
est rights secured by the Constitution. Refuse it upon the 
broad principle, as relating to this subject, and these malignant 
ao-itators will seize upon the act to draw to themselves and their 
cause the public sympathy. They will represent themselves as 
having been denied their constitutional rights, and as being the 
subjects of unjust and unreasonable persecution; and, once able 
to occupy that ground plausibly, they will become vastly more 
dangerous than they can ever make themselves by any efforts of 
their own. 

"Mr. W. said it appeared to him that a unanimous expression 
of the Senate, if that could be secured, was of the greatest 
importance, as being much more calculated to allay excitement 
in every portion of the country than any peculiar form of expres- 
sion which might be preferred by any sectional interest. Under 
this impression, he had hoped that the liberal and patriotic pro- 
position of his friend from Pennsylvania [Mr. Buchanan] would 
have been adopted by universal consent; that these petitions, 
and all others upon the same subject, if not clearly exceptionable 
in their language and manner, would be received, be permitted 
to be read at the clerk's table, if desired, and then that the 
prayer of each would be promptly rejected, without one word of 
debate, and by the vote of every Senator. He yet hoped the 
Senate would consent to take that course. Its effect would be, 
in his judgment, most eminently calculated to allay excitement 
everywhere, and everywhere that effect was most desirable. A 
l)olitical or geographical vote could not have that effect any- 
where; and, therefore, he hoped not to see such a vote. 

"A single other remark, Mr. W. said, and he would occupy 
the attention of the Senate no longer. The gentlemen from 
the south assure us they have no apprehension for their safety, 
and for the safety of their respective States, let the present 
excitement result as it may. It Avas pleasant to him to hear these 
assurances. They were calculated to do good everywhere; but 
he must say, in sheer justice to the non-slaveholding States, that 
they should not be made in a manner to carry with them the 
implication that our fellow-citizens of the south are to meet 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 351 

enemies in the great body of the citizens of the north. Such is 
not the fact — they are friends to the south; friends to the consti- 
tutional rights of the south ; friends to the peace of the country ; 
friends to the preservation of the Union of these States; and they 
will, upon all occasions, and in every place, perform all their 
constitutional duties, as pointed out by the honorable Senator 
from Virginia [Mr. Leigh]. They will, upon every call, most 
cheerfully lend their aid to quell insurrection, not promote it; 
they will open their arms, not present their bayonets, to all their 
fellow-citizens, of whatever section of the Union. 

" Mr. Calhoun could not concur with the gentleman from New 
York that so much delicacy was to be shown to the very small 
part of his own State he referred to, that these petitions were to 
be rejected, lest the refusal to receive them might be considered 
as a violation of the right of the citizen to petition Congress. 
But, said Mr. C, does the gentleman look at our side of the 
question ? If his constituents, continued Mr. C, are to be treated 
with so much respect that their petitions are to be received, what 
is to be considered as due to our constituents ? The Senator 
considered the petition before the Senate as moderate in its lan- 
guage — he did not say otherwise — language, said Mr. C, which 
treats us as butchers and pirates. The Senator said they must 
receive this petition and reject it, lest it might be considered as 
violating the right of petition. To receive it and immediately 
reject it. This looked something like juggling. Was the peti- 
tion of sufficient consequence to be received, and at the same 
time of so little consequence as to be immediately rejected? 
Was it intended merely that this petition was to be put on the 
files of the Senate as a record to show the opinion entertained of 
the people of the south by these abolitionists ? The Senator 
told them that this abolition spirit had subsided at the north. 
lie told them that this convention of Utica, which he spoke of 
as an exception to the general feeling in his State, was compelled 
to disperse. Well, within a few days a newspaper published at 
Utica nad been handed to him, called the Oneida Standard and 
Democrat. He supposed the gentleman Avas acquainted with its 
character ; it was headed ' For President, Martin Van Bnren of 
New York; for Vice-President, Richard M. Johnson of Ken- 



352 i//7i-£' AM) Times of Silas Wiugut. 

tucky.' This paper contained a most violent attack on the 
southern States and their institutions. 

"[Mr. Wrigut exphiined — he only wished to state that it 
was the office where this paper was published which had been 
forcibly entered and the types thrown into the street, as he had 
l)L'fore related; that it was for that offense against this paper, 
when the grand jury of the county refused to find bills of 
indictment ; that neither himself nor his friends could be respon- 
sible for the names which such a paper might choose to place at 
its head ; but that of this one fact he could assure the Senator 
of his own knowledge, that no other paper in the whole State 
was more univ^ersally or distinctly understood to be hostile to 
the political party to which he belonged than this paper ; and he 
did not doubt that its columns would establish his position.]" 

The reader of the debates in Congress on these petitions 
will not fail to observe that one class of southern politi- 
cians songht to hold Mr. Van Buren responsible for tlie 
acts of northern abolitionists who desired to agitate and 
spread their theories and wishes, mainly regardless of the 
consequences to the democratic or whig candidate for the 
presidency. It will not escape notice that Mr. Wright 
manifested his usual tact and skill in vindicating the 
views and actions of Mr. Van Buren and his friends upon 
the subject of abolition, as well as other subjects, while 
he presented considerations upon the subject to the Senate 
which few then and no one now, will contend are not pru- 
dent, wise and conclusive. 



Life and Tuies of Silas Weight. 353 



Chapter LIII. 

RELIEF OF THE NEW YORK SUFFERERS BY FIRE. 

On the 16tli of December, 1835, New York was visited 
by a desolating fire, in which 674 buildings, including 
some public edifices, were totally destroyed, and ranges 
of capacious and valuable stores and warehouses, dis- 
lodging about 1,000 mercantile firms. The fire extended 
over fifty-two acres of ground, and destroyed property 
valued at $20,000,000. Many of the merchants whose 
property was destroyed were indebted to the United 
States on duty bonds. Their attention was turned to 
Congress for an extension of the time of payment of 
these and to other modes of relief. 

The following remarks of Mr. Weight will show what 
was done in the city on these subjects : 

" Mr. Wright said he was charged with the presentation of a 
memorial on behalf of the citizens of the city of New York, and 
more especially in behalf of that portion of those citizens who 
were sufferers by the late conflagration in that city. Consequent 
upon that unexampled calamity a public meeting of the citizens 
of the city was called, and a committee of 125 persons, distin- 
guished for their standing, was appointed to pi-epare a memorial 
to Congress for such relief as it might be supposed Congress 
could afford. The memorial he held had proceeded from that 
committee, and was signed by its chairman. 

" Mr. W. said the memorial was too long to authorize him to 
ask for its reading at the secretary's table, and he would there- 
fore state, in the condensed language of the memorial itself, the 
relief prayed for, which was as follows : 

" ' 1. A remission or refunding of duties on goods in original packages, 
whicli have been destroyed by the late contiagration. 

" ' 2. An extension of credit on all the existing bonds for duties payable 
in this city, and falling due after the sixteenth of this month. 
23 



354 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" ' 3. A 'general fe/»;wrary extension of the time of payment of casli and 
other duties on goods imported into the United States subsequent to the six- 
teenth of this month. 

" ' 4. An investment of a portion of the unappropriated surplus revenue 
of the United States, In such periods and such manner as will afford relief 
to the city of New York.' 

" These, Mr. W. said, were the specific modes of relief prayed 
for in the memorial. It was not his purpose to consider them at 
this time, but he felt it to be a duty he owed to his colleague and 
himself, upon tlie presentation of this memorial, to trouble the 
Senate with a single remark. This signal calamity upon a very 
numerous and most important portion of their immediate con- 
stituents had not been unnoticed by them, or failed to excite their 
most lively anxieties, but upon full deliberation they had believed 
that they, as the immediate representatives of the State in this 
body, should best discharge their duties here, and best consult 
the interests of those who had suffered, to wait any action, so far 
as action of Congress might be expected, until the specific wishes 
of. those immediately concerned, and therefore most competent to 
specify tluur wants, should be made known. That had now been 
done in the memorial he held in his hand, and he most cheerfully 
communicated those wishes to the Senate. For the single reason 
assigned, and for no other, his colleague and himself up to this 
time had remained silent upon this important subject, and had 
not made any proposition, or in any shape brought the matter to 
the notice of the Senate. 

" ]Mr. W. then moved that the memorial, without a reading, be 
referred to the Committee on Finance, and that the same be 
printed," 

Mr, Wright exerted himself to secure sucli relief as 
tlie losses sustained seemed to render proper. Congress 
limited its action at tliat session, to extending the time 
of the payment of the duty bonds which were then due 
or fell due after the fire, allowing five years for the pay- 
ment of new bonds to be given in place of the old ones, 
with interest limited to five per cent instead of the usual 
rate of six. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 355 



Chapter LIV. 

NATIONAL DEFENSE. 

The high rate of duties imposed by the tariff law of 
1828, and the unregulated sjDirit of speculation in pub- 
lic lands, nourished and encouraged by the paper sys- 
tem and the flush condition of the deposit banks, had 
filled our national treasury to overflowing, and eventu- 
ally occasioned the distribution to the States of some 
$28,000,000. A counter scheme for depleting the treas- 
ury was found in an extended plan of national forti- 
fications. Surveys, estimates and reports were made. 
President Jackson was understood to favor the forti- 
fication mode of disposing of any considerable surplus 
which might find its way into the treasury. Distribu- 
tion and fortifications were competing subjects of public 
policy, and divided the political parties with few excep- 
tions; the whigs going for distribution and the democrats 
for fortifications. The discussions were emphatic, and 
aroused much warm feeling and some animosities. 

Mr. Benton introduced a resolution in favor of appro- 
priating the surplus revenue to objects of permanent 
national defense. This resolution was before the Senate 
on the 17th of February, 1836, when Mr. Wright made 
the following remarks : 

" Mr. President — I took the floor on Friday last to detain the 
Senate with any remarks of mine, in the course of this debate, 
with extreme rehictance; a reluctance arising from the manifest 
desire of this body to terminate the discussion and come to the 
question. The reluctan(?e thus felt was greatly increased by the 
knowledge that many members, upon both sides of the House, 
understood that the debate was to close with the closing speech 



356 I'l^^ ^^'^ Times of Silas Wright. 

of the mover of the resolutions [Mr. Benton], and that the ques- 
tion was to be taken wlion he should resume his seat. My own 
desire that the resolutions should receive, if possible, the unani- 
mous vote of the Senate, still further increased my unwillingness 
iM protract thu discussion, as, in the then state of things, I con- 
sidered it very desirable to have the vote of the Senate upon the 
resolutions, and the resolutions themselves, to go to the country 
with the message of the President announcing the mediation of 
Kngland in our difficulties with France, that the sense of this 
body, as well as the message, might exert a benelicial influence, 
not only throughout our own country, but upon the other side of 
the Atlantic. 

" So strong, Mr. President, was ray anxiety upon this point 
that, even after the remarks made by the Senator from Virginia 
[Mr. Iv'igh], who followed the Senator from Missouri [Mr. Ben- 
ton], I had consented, exceptionable in principle and practice as 
I considered those remarks to be, not to reply to them, but to let 
the question follow the speech of the Senator from North Caro- 
lina [Mr. Brown], he having succeeded the Senator from Virginia 
[Mr. Leigli] in the debate. When, however, the Senator from 
Ohio [Mr. Ewing] felt it to be his duty again to take part in the 
discussion, and not only to continue the debate, but, as to most 
of the essential points, to take the same ground which had been 
occupied by the Senator from Virginia [Mr. Leigh], my reluctance 
to obtrude myself upon the attention of the Senate yielded to a 
sense of the imperious obligation resting upon me as a member 
of the body, and as a representative, in part, of one of the States 
of this Union, not to permit positions so erroneous, and so dan- 
gerous in their tendencies, to be assumed and repeated without 
reply. My principal object in asking the floor had this extent — 
to reply, somewhat at large, to the remarks of these two Sena- 
tors touching our relations with France, the difficulties which had 
grown out of them, and the duties of our government, as hereto- 
fore discharged, or hereafter to be discharged, in reference to the 
settlement of those difficulties. 

"I had intended particularly to reply to the position assumed 
by the honorable Senator from Virginia [Mr. Leigh], that it was 
permissible, for any cause, or under any circumstances, that a 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 357 

foreign government should interpose itself between the President 
and Congress; that any foreign government should have the 
right to ask, and that it should be the duty of any department 
of our government to make either explanation or apology (by 
whichever terra the gentleman may choose to characterize the 
demand) touching any matter contained in any communication 
from the President of the United States to the Congress of the 
United States, or from the Congress of the United States to the 
President of the United States. [Here Mr. Leigh asked leave to 
explain, and Mr. W. yielded the floor to him for that purpose. 
He said the question discussed by him was not whether the 
explanation or apology ought to be made, because it had been 
conceded on all hands that the requisite explanation had been 
made in the last annual message from the President to Congress, 
but in what manner that explanation should reach the French 
government; whether by direct communication, in the ordinary 
course of diplomatic correspondence, or indirectly, by being con- 
tained in a message to Congress; and that he had contended tliat 
the former mode of direct diplomatic communication was prefer- 
able. ] Mr. W. resumed. The question is understood alike by tlie 
gentleman and myself. He will not pretend that the annual mes- 
sage from the President to Congress, or any other message from 
that officer to this body, is a communication, in any sense, directly 
or indirectly, to a foreign government ; that such messages are ever 
transmitted upon the demand or requisition of a foreign govern- 
ment, or that any foreign government can, in any proper view of 
the subject, be considered directly or indirectly as a party to 
these communications. They cannot, then, be termed either 
explanations or apologies to a foreign power; and the question 
returns, are we to permit any foreign government to interpose 
between these two branches of our government, and demand 
either explanation or apology in reference to the communications 
passing between them ? No, never, Mr. President, while we 
remain an independent nation. 

" I had also intended, said Mr. W., to have replied particularly 
to the position assumed by the honorable Senator from Oliio 
[Mr. Ewing], that things had better remain precisely as they 
then were, or as we supposed they then were, than to have a war 



358 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

witli France ; in other words, to give what I understood to be 
the purport of the Senator's position, we had better yield the 
execution of the treaty on the part of France, than to insist upon 
its fulfiUincnt at tlie expense of a war. 

" I am prevented, Mr. President, by the news which has reached 
the country since this subject was hast under the consideration 
of the Senate, from replying to either of the gentlemen, or to 
any other gentleman who has addressed the Senate in the course 
of this .lebate touching our French relations ; and, consequently, 
I am prevented from making a reply to the two positions I have 
just stated, and which I have considered more exceptionable and 
dangerous than any other assumed by the gentleman. The 
information I have received through the public press, and other- 
wise, has entirely satisfied my mind that our difficulties with 
France are definitively and amicably settled; that the money due 
under the treaty has been, many days since, actually paid ; that 
the French government have considered the last annual message 
of the President entirely satisfactory as to the offense they 
assumed was contained in the preceding one ; and that diplomatic 
relations between the two countries will be speedily resumed 
upon a friendly footing. I announce these convictions with the 
highest feelings of gratification ; and entertaining them, as I do, 
Avithout the shadow of a doubt, it would be in the extreme 
improper, in my estimation, for me here to discuss any topic 
connected with, or involving in any manner, our relations with 
France, or to reply to any remarks which have fallen from Sena- 
tors in that portion of the debate which has transpired touching 
those relations. 

" I have, Mr. President, entered my distinct dissent from the 
two positions to which I have referred — the one assumed by the 
Senator from Virginia [Mr. Leigh], and the other by the Senator 
from Ohio [Mr. Ewing] ; and beyond that, for the reasons I have 
given, I must content myself, as to this portion of the debate, 
with simply saying to those who, since the transmission of the 
last annual message of the President to Congress, have pro- 
nounced our government in the wrong in this controversy with 
France, that France has not thought so ; to those who have con- 
sidered it the right of France to interpose between the President 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 359 

and Congress, and to demand explanations or ajjologies as to 
anytliing contained in his messages to this body, that France has 
withdrawn her cLaim to any such riglit ; to those who have con- 
tended that it was better for us to yield the execution of the 
ti'eaty on the jiart of France, to give up our protection of our 
commerce upon the high seas, to surrender the rights of their 
citizens to indemnity for depredations upon that commerce, after 
those rights have been acknowledged and liquidated by the most 
solemn of all obligations between nations, the execution of a 
treaty for the payment of the claims — to surrender, in short, 
our national honor, by the concession that we cannot defend 
that honor, and its consequence, the safety of our commerce and 
the interests of our citizens, I must also content myself with 
saying that such have not been the views of the present adminis- 
tration of our government. That administration has considered 
it to be its highest duty to insist upon the execution of solemn 
treaty stipulations, to protect the rights and interests of our 
citizens, and the safety of our commerce, and, above and beyond 
all, to preserve the honor of the country against every assault or 
imputation, from whatever quarter that assault may be made, 
and at whatever hazard, even the hazard of an ap2)eal to the 
ultima ratio of nations. 

" Beyond these remarks, Mr, President, I must confine myself to 
the resolutions before the Senate, with such very brief replies to a 
few remarks made in the course of the debates as I may find it my 
duty to make, excluding any reference to our foreign relations. 

" And here, said Mr. W., I must be permitted to say, if I 
understand the resolutions in their present shape correctly, that 
the information of the settlement of our difficulties with France 
does not, in the slightest degree, affect their object, or the action 
of the Senate upon them. They propose a permanent system of 
defense, external and internal, for the whole country — a system 
of defense which does not contemplate war, but the preservation 
of peace and security. I cannot better illustrate my understand- 
ing of the object of the resolutions than by detaining the Senate 
to read them. They are as follows: 

" ' E( solved, That so much of the surplus revenue of the United States, 
and the dividends of stock receivable from the Bank of the United States, 



360 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

as may be necessary for the purpose, ought to be set apart and applied to 
the general defense and p(!rmaiicnt security of the country. 

'' ' liesolved, That the President be requested to cause the Senate to be 

informed — 

"'1. The probable amount tliat would be necessary for fortifying the 
laiic, maritime and gulf frontier of the United States, and such points of 
tlie laud frontier as may require permanent fortifications. 

'"2. The i)robal)le amount that would be necessary to construct an 
adequate number of armories and arsenals in the United States, and to sup- 
l)ly the States with field artillery (especially brass fiekl-pieces) for their 
militia, and with side-arms and pistols for their cavalry. 

" ' 3. The probable amount that would be necessary to supply the United 
States witli the ordnance, arms and munitions of war, which a proper regard 
to self-defense would require to be always on hand. 

'"4. The i>robable amount that would be necessary to i>lace the naval 
defenses of the United States (including the increase of the navy, uavy- 
yards, dock-yards and steam or Hoating batteries) upon the fooling of 
strength and respectability which is due to the security and to the welfare 
of tlie Union.' 

" Tims it will be seen at a single glance tliat the object is not 
to prepare, temporarily, for an impending or contemplated Avar, 
bill for the permanent and durable defenses of the whole country 
against all dangers which may assail its peace and disturb its 
quiet, wliether foreign or domestic, whether having their rise from 
without or from within. The pledge is general for the ' perma- 
nent security ' of the country, and the inquiries are as broad as 
the whole Union, and cover all its great interests in reference to 
defense of coast, lake, gulf and land frontier, and every internal 
means of 'general defense and permanent security ' of armories, 
arsenals and arms. They also cover the naval defenses of the 
country, and constitute, in contemplation, a permanent and durable 
system, in every sense in which I am able to compreliend that sucli 
a system could be adopted, with proper regard to the respective 
interests and perfect security of the whole country, and of all its 
great interests, external and internal. They do not, either in 
language or design, contemplate immediate war, but they look to 
a state of defense and security against any and every Avar wdiicli 
may come upon the country in all future time. 

"For the accomplishment of this great and paramount national 
object, the resolutions rely upon the surplus moneys in the trea- 



Life and Ti3ies of Silas Wright. 361 

suiy, after the ordinary and necessary appropriations for the 
support of the government in its various departments shall have 
been paid, including the ordinary appropriations for the gradual 
improvement of the navy, and for the gradual progress in the con- 
struction and completion of the fortifications already commenced, 
and not any interference with those appropriations. Their object 
is to hasten the completion of perfect and secure defenses, by 
the application of moneys in the treasury not required for any 
other national object, but not to interrupt the course of the gov- 
ernment in any of the other great interests for which the ordinary 
annual appropriations are made. They propose to pledge, not the 
revenue, but so much of the surplus revenue as may be necessary 
to this great object. 

" The resolutions, then, Mr. President, or rather the first reso- 
lution, is, I apprehend, in the precise shape in which it should 
remain to meet the object the mover of the resolution had in 
view, and which I have in view in supporting them. This reso- 
lution is designed to act upon the surplus revenue only — upon 
that portion of the public moneys which shall remain in the 
treasury after all the ordinary calls upon that treasury have been 
fully answered ; and it proposes to pledge so much of that sur- 
plus, ' as may be necessary for the purpose,' to the great object 
of permanent national defense and security. Am I right in my 
construction of this resolution in its present shape ? If so, the 
amendment of the Senator from Delaware [Mr. Clayton], to 
strike out the word ' surplus,' ouglit not to prevail. That amend- 
ment will, to my understanding, change the whole character of 
the resolution, and destroy entirely the pledge designed to be 
made. The object is to set apart and apply to the general 
defense and permanent security of the country so much of the 
surplus of the revenues of the nation as may be necessary for 
that object ; and if the form of the resolution be so changed as 
to apply its action to the revenues generally, and not to the sur- 
plus, it may be so construed as only to contain an expression that 
we will appropriate, for the present year, so much of the public 
money to the various purposes of defense as we may think pro- 
per and necessary, and nothing will be 'set apart' for defenses 
which is not actually appropriated by the appropriation bills of 



-362 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

tliL' ve:u-. Any surplus wliicli may then remain in the treasury 
will he open to any other disposition which Congress may choose 
to make of it, without any infringement upon the pledge given 
hy the resolution. This I do not understand to be in accordance 
witli the object of the resolution. That object is to set apart a 
riin.l, such as may be necessary, to be exclusively applied to the 
defenses of the country, naval and military, and to constitute 
that fund of the surplus which shall remain in the treasury after 
the ordinary appropriations of the present and of each succeed- 
ing year shall have been paid. In other words, I understand the 
object to be to carry on the business of putting the country in a 
complete state of defense, internal and external, as rapidly as 
the means in the treasury will allow, without interference with 
the usual and necessary annual appropriations, in case the moneys 
wliich maybe applied to this object can be economically and use- 
fully expended as fast as they accumulate ; but, if they cannot, 
that a permanent fund be ' set apart ' from these accumulations, 
sufficient to accomplish the end in view, at the earliest practicable 
period. Surely, then, the word ' surplus ' should be retained in 
the first resolution, that the pledge may be made effectual and 
operative, and that the means to accomplish this vital object of 
national defense may be secured from the surplus moneys in the 
treasury, before any other disposition shall be made by Congress 
of the present or any future accumulation of means beyond the 
ordinary annual wants of the country. 

" I have said, Mr. President, that I would vote for the resolu- 
tion, whether this amendment should or should not prevail. I 
still retain the same opinion, but I am bound in candor to say 
that, when the amendment was first proposed, I did not think it 
at all important, and rather derived the impression that, if it 
could be considered as changing the character of the resolution 
at all, it must be held to go beyond the object of the mover, and 
more rapidly than he proposed to go. Upon reflection, I am 
satisfied that I did not correctly appreciate the force and bearing 
of the word ' surplus,' proposed to be stricken out, and that, 
without that word, we shall merely resolve that we will appro- 
priate for this single year so much of the money in the treasury 
as a majority of this body shall believe ' may be necessary and 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 363 

cjin be usefully expended towards the general and permanent 
defenses of the country,' while the surplus, if any, in the trea- 
sury will not he 'set apart' or pledged to this great object, but 
will remain subject to any disposition which Congress may 
choose to make of it, without an infraction of our resolution. 
Our purpose to defend the country will be declared, but the 
means to do it will not be ' set apart ' by our expression. For 
these reasons I hope the proposed amendment may not prevail, 
and that the first resolution may retain its present form. 

" There is, Mr. President, another amendment proposed to this 
resolution, upon which I must trouble you with a single remark. 
I refer to the proposition of the Senator from South Carolina 
[Mr. Preston], to strike out the whole resolution after the word 
' Resolved,^ and to insert the following : 

"'That such appropriations as maybe necessary for the purpose ought 
to be made, to carry on the system of general defense and permanent pro- 
tection of the country.' 

" This amendment, if adopted, will make the resolution much 
more vague and unmeaning than to adopt the amendment of the 
Senator from Delaware, to strike out the word ' surplus.' Indeed, 
if I rightly comprehend this proposition, it merely declares that 
we will, for the present year, make the same appropriations for 
the defense of the country which have been regularly and uni- 
formly made from about the close of our late war with Great 
Britain to the present time, the appropriations of the last year 
being alone excepted. Is it, then, Mr. President, necessary for 
us to declare, by a resolution, that we will not now stop the 
ordinary appropriations for defense which have been regularly 
made for nearly twenty years last past ? Does any member of 
this body contemplate, for a moment, that those very limited 
appropriations will be either suspended or diminished ? Surely, 
then, we cannot be asked to adopt this amendment. The reso- 
lutions under debate propose to accelerate our progress in the 
work of defense, by the application of the surplus revenues of 
the country to that work. This amendment proposes to ' carry 
on the system' as it now exists, and has been carried on for the 
period I have mentioned. The resolutions propose to extend our 
system of defense, and make it universal and applicable to all 



864 -^^^^ "^^^ Times of Silas Wriqmt. 

dangers, external or internal. The amendment proposes to carry- 
on 'the system' now in progress, without extension. I need not 
say more to satisfy the Senate that the adoption of this amend- 
ment would be an entire defeat of the resolutions offered by the 
Senator from JVIissouri. 

"Mr. President, if the resolutions retain their present shape, 
they are, as has been said by the mover of them, antagonist to the 
proposition of the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun], to 
divide the surplus revenue among the States. Both propositions 
act upon the same money, and propose very different dispositions 
of it. The former proposes to expend it, or so much of it as may 
be necessary, for the great object of national defense. The latter 
proposes to give it to the States, to be expended at their pleasure, 
not for national, but for State objects. They are, therefore, 
directly antagonist. I think the resolution, also, equally antago- 
nist to the measure introduced by the Senator from Kentucky 
[Mr. Clay], and known here by the designation of ' the land bill.' 
It is not now my purpose to inquire how far the principles of this 
measure and of that proposed by the Senator from South Carolina 
are the same, and wherein they may differ. They both propose 
a distribution to the States of a sum equal to the whole surplus 
in the treasury. They both act upon the same money ; and the 
resolution before us, proposing to set apart so much of that sur- 
plus as may be necessary to be expended upon the national 
defenses of the country, must be equally antagonist to both, 
because it proposes to apply in a different manner, and for a very 
different purpose, a part, or the whole, of the fund upon which 
both the other propositions act. 

" Much has been said by several gentlemen, in the course of the 
debate, as to the amount of this surplus. I have, Mr. President, 
used my best efforts to inform myself truly upon this point, and 
I will now give to the Senate the result of my inquiries. I sought 
the information at the Treasury department, because I knew of 
no other place where correct and certain information could be 
obtained upon the point; and the statement I am about to make 
is one prepared from information communicated from the head 
of that department, and rests upon the authority of the accounts 
of receipts and expenditures kept in that office, with very trifling 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 365 

exceptions, which will be seen to be matters of estimate. I have 
found it necessary to give this result in the dry form of figures 
and arithmetical deductions; but I have compressed it into as 
small a compass as was possible, and in that form I will give it 
to the Senate : 

"The money in the treasury, on the 1st January, 1835, was 
$8,892,858. 

"The collections of the first three quarters of the year 1835, 
as ascertained before the Secretary's annual report was made, 
were $23,480,881. 

"The collections of the fourth quarter of 1835, as far as those 
collections have been yet ascertained, are 110,919,852. 

" In addition to these sums, the Secretary now estimates that 
there will remain, to be added to the receipts of the year 1835, 
as part of the collections of the fourth quarter, not yet ascer- 
tained, $230,000. 

"This will show an aggregate of means, for the year 1835, of 
$43,523,591. 

"Deduct from this aggregate the expenditures of the first three 
quarters of the year 1835, as ascertained before the annual report 
of the Secretary was made, 1 1 3,370,141. 

"Deduct also the actual expenditures of the fourth quarter of 
1835, as now ascertained with sufficient accuracy for this calcula- 
tion, $4,050,000 — $17,426,141. 

" And then there-will remain an apparent surplus of $26,097,450. 

" From this apparent surplus, the following deductions must be 
made to ascertain the real surplus, viz. : 

" 1st. The unavailable funds in the treasury, which constitute 
a part of the balance remaining in tlie treasury on the first day 
of every year, as sliown by the accounts, $1,100,000. 

" 2d. The amount of outstanding appropriations, being sums 
appropriated by law, but which have not been called for at the 
treasury at the close of the year. This amount is an estimate, 
but it is arrived at by making a deduction from the whole amount 
of outstanding appropriations of all such portions as are sup- 
posed likely not to be called for, and, consequently, to pass to 
the sinking fund. It is, therefore, in all probability, sufiiciently 
small — $7j595,574. 



'?)C)C) Life axd Times of Silas Wright. 

"3cl. The estimate of expenditures for the fourth quarter of 
1835 was $4,800,0()(». Tlie actual expenditures of the quarter, as 
ascertained and above given, have only been $4,050,000, leaving 
:i balance of llie estimate over the expenditures of $750,000, As 
the estimate is made from claims known to exist against the 
treasury, the reason for this difference between the estimated and 
the actual exj)enditures for this quarter has groAvn out of the fact 
that an amount of these claims, equal to the difference of $750,000, 
has not been presented for payment within the quarter, which, it 
was anti('ii>atod, would be presented and paid. The claims, how- 
ever, reiii.iiii, and must be paid in 183G, and therefore this amount 
of outstanding ajipictpriations, not having been included in tlie 
general estimate of outstanding appropriations last above given, 
because it was not expected they would be outstanding at the close 
of tlie year, should also be deducted, $750,000; making $9,445,574. 

"'I'hcse sums deducted, leave the true surplus of money in the 
treasury mi tlie 1st day of January, 1836, that being $16,651,876. 

" It is (bie to the Secretary of the Treasury that I should, in 
tliis phice, give to the Senate his explanation of the very great 
difference between the revenue anticipated and the actual revenue 
received, tur tlie fourth quarter of the last year. 

"The actual receipts into the treasury, as already ascertained 
• luring that (piarter, are $10,919,852. 

"The Secietary estimates that there has probably been col- 
lecti'il, and not yet ascertained at the department, a further 
am. Hint, (luring tlie same quarter, of $230,000. 

"Showing the Avhole probable receipts of the quarter to be 
$11,149,852. 

" Tu his animal report on the state of the finances, the Secretary 
estimated the revenue of this quarter at $4,950,000. 

" ^^ liich sum, taken from the now ascertained and estimated 
receipts of the quarter, will leave an excess beyond his anticipa- 
tion of >;U, 199,852. 

" The receipts from the sales of public lands during the fourth 
(luarter of 1835, beyond any reasonable anticipation formed upon 
past experience, account for a very large share of this excess. 
There was paid into the various land offices, during the last two 
months of that quarter, tlie following amounts: 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. :]()7 

"In the month of November, 1835, $1,776,000; in the month 
of December, 1835, $2,340,000; making a total of receipts from 
the sales of land alone, during those two months, of $4,116,000. 

"These immense sales, too, were made when no important 
public sales were advertised to take place, or did take place. The 
payments which constitute this great total were almost exclu- 
sively made upon lands purchased at the government minimum 
price; in other words, taken, as I believe the phrase is, at private 
entry. The proceeds from lands for these two months, thus 
obtained, have more than equaled many former years, and have 
by far exceeded the receipts of any two former months, and any- 
thing which could have been anticipated in the absence of 
important public sales. 

" Another cause of the excess of receipts over the estimate for 
the fourth quarter of 1835, given by the Secretary, is, that the 
apprehension of a war with France, and of consequent commercial 
interruptions and disturbances generally, produced an increase 
of importations within that quarter far beyond any anticipation 
entertained by him, and far beyond any former example. The 
actual collections of duties at the port of New York alone, not 
including the bonds taken and not falling due within the quarter, 
I think the Secretary assured me, amounted to full $5,000,000, a 
sum almost equal to an ordinary half year's collection of revenue 
at that port. These two sources of revenue, so immensely and 
so unexpectedly swelled Ijeyond any former precedent, have prin- 
cipally produced the excess of $6,000,000 in the revenues of the 
last quarter of the last year. 

" To return now, Mr. President, to the resolutions. Having 
seen what are the means in our hands to give them force and 
application, what, let me ask, are the considerations which call 
upon the Senate for their adoption ? The first and most promi- 
nent, and one which appears to my mind entirely controlling, is 
the defenseless state of the country. That the country is defense- 
less seems now to be conceded by every Senator who has 
addressed the Senate upon this subject. We have the fact before 
this body, from sources entitled to our peculiar confidence. The 
chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs [Mr. Southard] 
gave us, in the course of his remarks, a detailed account of the 



:JG8 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



ron 



\vi 
c 



.litinn of the navy, and of our force afloat and in service. 
Sir, it .l..c's not amount to a navy at all, compared to the extent 
of the coast we liave to defend, and the immense and wide-spread 
commerce we have to protect : a single ship of the line, I believe, 
two or three frigates, and a few schooners and sloops of war. I 
not pretend to be accurate in the enumeration the honorable 
hairman gave us, but I must say it was almost equivalent to no 
force at all upon the ocean, in comparison with what will always 
be required for defense and commercial protection. We have 
received also, from the honorable chairman of the Committee on 
iMilitary Affairs [Mr. BcntonJ, repeated accounts of the condi- 
tion of our fortifications and land defenses : but one commercial 
town in the whole country, at the most, in any condition to be 
defended against an attack by sea : with one or two exceptions, 
not a gun in any of your forts, and no preparations for mounting 
them if they were there; nearly all the public works which have 
been commenced for the purpose of defense remain in an unfin- 
ished state, and cannot be made useful and secure without further 
large expenditures; the militia of the country badly armed, or 
entirely without arms, and all those portions of the Union most 
exposed to savage incursions or domestic insurrection, without 
armories and arsensals, from which arms may be obtained in 
cases of emergency and danger. Such, sir, is my recollection, 
very briefly sketched, of the picture we have often had presented 
frona the chairman of the committee of this body more especially 
charged witli tlie subject of our land defenses. Surely, then, if 
an entirely defenseless condition, both by sea and land, can urge 
us onward in the great work to which the resolutions invite us, 
we have a consideration here for their passage stronger than any 
friend to them could wish. 

" Mr. President, so clear and so palpable to the mind of every 
statesman, and to the feelings of every patriot, was the truism 
conveyed by the words of the Father of his Country, 'in peace 
prepare for war,' that those words have grown into a maxim 
will, h has ivinaiiicd undisputed for half a century. If the prin- 
ciple conveyed in this maxim be sound, and was ever practically 
applicable to any government upon the earth of which history 
gives us any account, with how much more force does it apply 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 3^9 

to the government of the United States at this moment ! Sir, 
what is our pecuniary condition ? Without a dollar of debt ; in 
the midst of jjrosperity in every department of business, so 
abundant as almost to endanger plethora ; at peace with all the 
nations of the earth, and only momentarily disturbed by an 
Indian insurrection of limited extent, the danger from which has 
undoubtedly subsided before this hour ; with sixteen and a half 
millions of dollars in the national treasury, upon which the ordi- 
nary wants of the government make no call. This is our con- 
dition ; and shall we resist this call for the nation's defense, made 
under circumstances such as I have described ? We cannot — 
we shall not. 

" Applicable to some portion of this body, Mr. President, is 
another consideration, which I feel bound to notice, and which 
appeals strongly to those to whom it is applicable for the passage 
of the resolutions, and the carrying out, to their full extent, the 
principles expressed by them. The present administration has 
been extensively complained of, in the course of the debate, for 
not having, during the six or seven years of its existence, put 
the country in a state of defense. The honorable Senator from 
Delaware [Mr. Clayton] met the question fairly, and placed his 
complaint upon the ground that the administration had adopted 
the principle that the national debt must be paid in preference to 
the conversion of the surplus moneys of the treasury to an 
increase of the navy and other works of defense. This is so, sii\ 
T am aware there is a wide difference of opinion between the 
l)olitical parties of this country in relation to the policy of pay- 
ing off and finally extinguishing the national debt. The admin- 
istration has adopted the democratic policy, that plain policy 
which governs every prudent citizen in the management of his 
private affairs ; and has considered itself bound in honesty and 
honor, so far as the laws of Congress left the money of the gov- 
ernment to its disposition, to apply every dollar of that money, 
not required for the necessities of the country, to the payment 
of the public creditors. To discharge the country from debt has 
been its first and highest pecuniary object; to put it in a state 
of defense and security against external and internal danger 
stands next in the course of its policy. It is not my object, Mr. 
24 



370 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Piusident, at tliis time, to discuss the question whether the pay- 
ment of a national debt be or be not a wise and sound policy. 
It is the policy which meets my most earnest and lively appro- 
bation. It is the policy of the Constitution ; for the language of 
that instrument is, 'The Congress shall have power to lay and 
collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.' For what, Mr. Presi- 
dent? First, 'to pay the debts;' second, 'to provide for the 
common defense.' These are the constitutional uses to which the 
money of the people, in the national treasury, may be applied ; 
and this is the order in which those purposes are mentioned in 
that sacred instrument. 

" The honorable Senator from Virginia [Mr. Leigh] inquired, 
why did not the friends of the administration, when they had 
the power of the Senate, and the power of the formation of the 
committees of the Senate, make these provisions for the defense 
of the country, if they were considered so necessary ? My 
answer to the Senator has just been given. The administration 
and its friends considered their first duty to be to pay the 
national debt. In that duty they proceeded as rapidly as the 
funds of the government and the legislation of Congress would 
permit them to go ; but, before it was accomplished, and the 
debt paid, the power of this body passed from their hands, and 
with it the power of forming its committees. 

" Mr. President, among the objections to the passage of these 
resolutions, which the debate has drawn forth, none has been 
heard by me with so much surprise as that made by the Senator 
from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun], that 'to arm is to declare 
war.' I believe, sir, this principle was laid down by that honor- 
able Senator in reference to a rupture with France, which, at the 
time he spoke, we all had some cause to apprehend ; but is it 
sound, as applicable to the condition of our country then as now ? 
Is it a principle which should govern the statesman, as applicable 
to any country at any time, and under any circumstances ? I 
contend it is not, but precisely the reverse is the truth ; that to 
arm and fortify, and be prepared for defense, is to preserve peace. 
What country is most liable to attack in the conflicts and colli- 
sions which will arise between rival nations ? That one whose 
defenses are strong and adequate, or that one which is exposed 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 371 

and defenseless '? It surely requires no great skill, as a states- 
man or diplomatist, to answer so plain a question ; and the answer 
must establish my position, and overturn that of the Senator. 

" I will next proceed, Mr. President, to reply to some remarks 
which have fallen from the honorable Senators, touching the 
extent to which appropriations for defense ought to be carried. 

"The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Crittenden], whom I do 
not now see in his place, treated these appropriations as local, 
and calculated merely to benefit the portions of the country 
where the moneys are to be expended. Pursuing this train of 
argument, he said he was not willing to devote the whole surplus 
to defenses, to the construction of fortifications, to the building 
of ships, to the supply of ordnance, to purchase of swords and 
pistols; that he could not consent to yield all to the coast and 
frontier, while the interior, and the State he had the honor in 
part to represent here, was to receive nothing; that he could not 
grant all for war; but a portion must be reserved for the pur- 
poses of peace. Was the gentleman correct in considering appro- 
priations of money for the defense of the nation as local appro- 
priations? as appro})riations partial in their character, and calcu- 
lated only to benelit the small districts of country wherein the 
moneys are to be expended ? Will he, upon reflection, persist in 
governing his action by this rule '? Is not our whole country one 
conntry ? Are we not one people ? Is not the blow of an enemy, 
strike where it may, a blow at us all ? And is not the defense of 
any point equally, to that extent, a defense for the whole conntry ? 
Are approj^riations for building ships local appropriations, becaiise 
those ships are to traverse the ocean, and not the interior of the 
country ; because they are to meet and beat off an enemy before 
he reaches our soil, and not to meet him in the heart of the 
country '? Has the gentleman considered the two acts we have 
passed during our present session, making appropriations toward 
the expenses of the Indian war at this moment waging in Florida, 
as local appropriations for the benefit of Florida? The assault 
of the enemy has been local, as the assault of any enemy ever 
must be; but is not the offense national, and the work of defense 
national and general ? I am sure, Mr, President, the Senator 
will see the impropriety of this objection, and abandon it. 



372 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

"The Senator further spoke of a demand for the plow-shares 
,,f Lis constituents to be converted into swords, and said they 
could not surrender them for that purpose. He mistakes the 
calls of the resolutions. Their object is not to convert the plow- 
shares of Kentucky into swords, but so to defend the country 
that the worthy husbandman of that and all the other States may 
hold their plows and till their grounds in peace and security, 
without danger from a foreign or domestic enemy. That is their 
object, and the money is now in the treasury of the nation to 
accomplish this great national and constitutional object; and the 
true question is, sliall it be appropriated for that purpose, or shall 
it be expended for the gentleman's purposes of peace ? He did 
not specify what purposes of peace he had in view, but I inferred 
from his remarks that roads, canals and other works of internal 
improvements were what he intended. Is it wiser to neglect our 
national defenses for these objects, or first to use the money of 
the nation to put the whole country in a state which will enable 
it to defend these works against an invader when they shall be 
made ? I consider the most effectual appropriations for purposes 
of peace appropriations for defense; and I again repeat, what I 
have already attempted to show, that the surest way to preserve 
peace, to an extensive, rich and prosperous country like ours, is 
to be prepared to defend ourselves promptly and effectually 
against war, come from what quarter it may. 

"Again: the Senator says the country has not been hitherto 
defended by fortifications and a navy ; and he asks, with much 
emphasis, were not the people of former days as patriotic as we 
are ? Let me ask the Senator, does he suppose that our fathers 
of the Revolution, that the old Congress, if they had sixteen and 
a half millions of dollars at their command, would have proposed 
to divide it out among the colonies, 'for purposes of peace,' 
instead of applying it to the national defenses ? 

" Docs he suppose that the brave men of the late war, who 
interposed their persons and lives against the march of an enemy 
upon our soil, would have neglected the business of permanent 
defense, if the country had been in the possession of means to 
prosecute that work ? Does he believe that his brave and gallant 
constituents (and I most cheei-fully concede to them bravery and 



Life and Tuies of 8ilas Wright. 373 

gallantry and patriotism, not surpassed by the citizens of any 
State in the Union) will call upon him to divide to them the small 
portion of this surplus revenue which may fall to their share, 
and will agree, in return for that bounty, to make breastworks of 
their persons when the hour of need shall come? They have 
done this upon a former occasion, when the country had not the 
means to prepare defenses. Now the debt of the Revolution, 
the debt of the late war, are paid and discharged, and the 
national treasury full to overflowing; and who will advise to 
postpone provision for the general defense, to the hazai-d of 
the lives of our citizen soldiery, if not of our national inde- 
pendence, that we may distribute the money to our respective 
constituents ? 

" Mr. President, the honorable Senator from Ohio [Mr. Ewing] 
told us he would vote liberal appropriations for the defense of 
the country ; but most unfortunately for our condition, he 
assumed to prove to us that the appropriations for that object, 
which had been made in years past, were greater than we have 
the ability to expend. To establish his position, he read to us 
from a report of the head of the Engineer department, made to 
Congress at some former session, stating that there were not, in 
the service of the government, a sufficient number of engineers 
of skill and experience to superintend the public works already 
in progress, in a manner to secure the economical expenditure of 
the moneys appropriated, or to insure the proper construction of 
the works. I have not taken the trouble to look at the report to 
which the Senator referred, nor is it my object to impeach in any 
way the statements of the officer who made it. The report was 
necessarily confined to the engineers belonging to the corps of 
the government; and does the Senator suppose that all the 
science, all the skill, and all the experience in engineering which 
exists in the country is confined to that corps? Has he made 
himself believe that, if money be appropriated for the construc- 
tion of forts, the arming of our fortifications, the building and 
equipment of vessels of war, the manufacture of arms, and the 
erection of armories and arsenals, the government cannot expend 
it, for the want of engineers of proper skill and experience ? 
Give the money, sir, and call for their services, and you will have 



374 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



comt 



ipetent engineers, who will constitute an army of themselves. 
If you do not, you will be much less fortunate than any State 
has been which is expending large sums upon public work requir- 
ino- the most skillful and experienced engineers; and still no 
State has an organized engineer corps constantly in its service. 
:\Ir. President, the apprehension of the Senator is unfounded; 
for if money appropriated cannot be expended, in case the law 
makino- the appropriation be not too much restricted to reach the 
object designed, that fact will, I venture to say, be new in the 
history of government. 

" But, as the gentleman relies upon the authority of the head 
of the engineer corps for this objection to an increase of appro- 
priations for defense, and goes to a report made to a former 
Congress (upon what subject I know not), if he had been 
fortunate enough to have examined, with equal attention, the 
communications from that same officer made during our present 
session, and to be found upon our files, confined to the subject 
of defenses, he would have discovered what his opinions really 
are as to the appropriations for fortifications alone, which the 
state of the country requires and demands from Congress; he 
would have found that officer telling us that, in addition to all 
the appropriations recommended in the general annual estimates, 
which are much larger tlian the estimates of former years, there 
is required for the year 1836, for the single object of commencing 
new fortifications for the defense of the sea-coast alone, the sum 
of $2,503,800. And are we to believe that an officer of the 
standing of this one would recommend to us this large increase 
of our annual appropriations for a single object, when he knew 
the moneys ordinarily appropriated for fortifications could not 
be profitably expended ? Surely, sir, we cannot be asked so to 
consider the recommendations from that quarter. 

"The Senator supposes he has also discovered that the ordinary 
annual appropriations for the navy cannot be expended, and have 
been unnecessarily large in past years. In proof of his position, 
lie refers to a single item in a report made by the Secretary of 
the Navy to the House of Representatives, of the fourth instant, 
stating that the balance on hand of the moneys heretofore appro- 
priated for the 'gradual improvement of the navy,' on the thirty- 



Life and Turns of Silas Weight. 375 

first day of December last amounted to $1,415,000, and adds, as 
it were in triumph, ' here is ahuost a million and a half of dol- 
lars of the appropriations of the last year yet unexpended.' Now, 
Mr. President, neither the Congress of the last year nor the last 
Congress, by any act of theirs, appropriated one dollar of this 
money, or of any money, for 'the gradual improvement of the 
navy.' All these appropriations are made by a law approved 
March 3, 1827, appropriating annually, for a term of years, 
1500,000 for this object, which law was continued and extended 
by another law, approved 2d March, 1833. The expenditure of 
this money is confined, by the acts appropriating it, to the pur- 
chase of materials for ships, to the preservation of live-oak tim- 
ber and to the improvement of the navy-yards, and can be 
expended for no other purposes whatever. Neither the Secretary 
of the Navy nor the Navy Commissioners can put two sticks of 
timber together, or do any other act toward the building, arm- 
ing or preparing a ship for service out of this money. I know I 
shall be asked here, admit this appropriation to be thus limited, 
and are all the materials purchased which are now or may here- 
after be required, that this large balance is suffered to remain 
unexpended? I will show presently that it is not unexpended, 
though it yet remains unpaid ; but, to cause the subject to be 
fully understood, it is necessary to precede any explanation upon 
this point with the statement of the fact that the Navy Com- 
missioners, who are the officers having charge of the expenditure 
of the money appropriated for ' the gradual improvement of the 
navy,' are prohibited, by the positive provision of a law of Con- 
gress, from anticipating in any way these appropriations. They 
cannot make a contract or a purchase in anticipation of the 
coming appropriation under this permanent law, much less may 
they contract any debts, or incur any liabilities, in anticipation 
of any future action of Congress. They must, therefore, wait until 
the appropriation is in fact made, and the money placed to their 
credit at the treasury, before they can even issue proposals for 
contracts. That is done, as I assume, from looking at the two 
acts, on the third of March in each year. After that date, then, 
they must call for proposals, by public notices, published in the 
newspapers for the period required by law. When that period 



376 I'^^^ ^^^ Times of Silas Wright. 

has expired, they must examine their propositions, give notice to 
the bidders scattered over tlie whole country that their bids are 
accepted, and obtain, as soon as they may, the execution of the 
proper contracts. Tlien, and not till then, the work of fulfill- 
ment, on the part of the contractors, can commence. And who 
does not see that a large portion of the current year must have 
passed, in every instance, before this point can possibly be reached ? 
Is it strano-e, therefore, lliat large amounts of contracts should 
remain unclosed at so late a period as the few first days in 
the second month of the year succeeding that in which they are 
made ? 

" With these explanations of the laws of Congress, and the 
powers of the Commissioners under them, I proceed to show, 
from the report of the Commissioners themselves, the actual 
condition of this unexpended balance of $1,415,000. I refer to 
ducument L, appended to the annual report of the Secretary of 
the Navy to the President, and by him communicated to Congress 
with his annual message at the commencement of the present 
session ; and I cannot but observe that, had the Senator been 
fortunate enough to have had his attention turned to this docu- 
n;ent before he made his remarks, he would have saved me this 
tedious exposition of his error. The Commissioners, in the docu- 
ment referred to, give a summary of all their doings, under the 
act referred to making this permanent appropriation for ' the 
gradual improvement of the navy,' from the time of the pass- 
age of the act of the 3d March, 1827, up to the close of the 
third quarter of the last year. They conclude this statement by 
giving the whole amount of the appropriations under these acts, 
up to 1st October, 1835, at $4,500,000, and the payments actually 
made out of this sum at $3,002,755.80; leaving a balance of 
$1,497,245.20. And then proceed to say: 

" ' Of which there remahied in the treasury, on the 1st of October, 1835, 
the sum of $1,454,316.46. The l)ahince, supposed to be in the hands of navy 
agents, is $42,929.34; making a total, as above, of $1,497,245.20. 

" ' Of this sum there will be required, to meet existing engagements under 

the contract, about $616,000; leaving for other purposes about $881,245.20. 

Adverliscments have been issued, inviting offers for furnishing the 

live-oak frames for five ships of the Hue, six frigates, five sloops of war, 



Life and Tjmes of Silas Wright. 377 

five schooners and three steamers; which, if contracted for, will probably 
require about $000,000 of the balance remaining, after meeting existing 
engagements.' 

" Such, Mr. President, was the condition on the first of Octo- 
ber last, of this unexpended balance of money appropriated for 
the improvement of the navy ; between $600,000 and $700,000 
of it due upon outstanding contracts, in reality expended, but 
not in fact paid. Of the balance, 8600,000 more was then set 
apart to make payments upon contracts, propositions for which 
had been called for, and were coming in, which proj^ositions 
might come in so much higher than the anticipations of the Com- 
missioners as to consume the whole sum. It is perfectly evident 
that, while the Commissioners are forbidden by law to anticipate 
future appropriations, they must, in all cases, when inviting pro- 
posals, keeji themselves somewhat below the full amount of 
moneys in hand, so that, if their estimates of prices shall prove 
to be under those at which they can obtain offers, they may still 
be able to contract without a violation of the law, or without 
the inconvenience and delay consequent upon a rejection of all 
propositions, and an offer for new proposals based upon a new 
estimate. This is surely but a reasonable precaution, which 
would suggest itself to all faithful disbursing officers, scrupulous 
in their observance of the law, and anxious to promote the pub- 
lic service. So much for the facts; and now, Mr. President, for 
the argument drawn from them. 

'* By the laws of Congress as they are, and in consequence of the 
restrictions imposed by those laws upon the navy board, moneys 
appropriated, at the usual period of each year, for the gradual 
improvement of the navy, cannot be expended and the accounts 
closed within the same year, so as to prevent the appearance, in 
the accounts with the treasury, of an apparent unexpended bal- 
ance on the first day of the following year. Therefore, the Sena- 
tor infers, the appropriations for this object have been excessive, 
and greater than could be economically expended. Does this 
conclusion follow the premises ? The delay in the expenditure 
has no connection with the amount to be expended, but arises 
solely from the advanced period of the year when the appropri- 
ations are made; the restrictions imposed, and, in my judgment, 



:378 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

most properly imposed, upon the disbursing agents, against antici- 
pating funds not actually appropriated ; the forms required to be 
observed in making contracts, and the nature of the expenditure 
and the extent of the country in which it is to be made. Is it 
not, then, most palpable that the same time must be required, 
whether the expenditure be large or small ? Does anybody doubt 
that the amount of contracts for timber, and any other materials 
for ships, might be extended to almost any limit in this country, 
if the means of payment were placed at the disposition of the 
Commissioners ? Might they not as safely invite proposals, under 
tliis head of expenditure, for $5,000,000 as for |500,000 annually? 
Aii.l will any one believe they would fail to receive propositions 
covering all the money they should propose to expend ? Most 
certainly not. The question, then, is not one of amount, but sim- 
ply of time; and, thus resolved, I am sure that I shall not be 
contradicted when I say that offers may be invited, propositions 
received, examined, accepted or rejected, and contracts executed 
for an amount of $500,000 or of $5,000,000, without any mate- 
i-ial variation in the time required to go through either process. 
Til us far as to expenditures for ' the gradual improvement of the 
navy,' confined, as those expenditures are, simply to the purchase 
of materials for ships, to the preservation of our live-oak timber, 
and to the condition of our navy-yards. 

" But this is, by no means, the extent of the question presented. 
Ships are to be built, armed, manned and fitted for service; a 
bx-anch of expenditure not included in the appropriation I have 
been discussing; a branch of expenditure now altogether unpro- 
vided for by any appropriation. May not such appropriations be 
expended simultaneously Avith the appropriations for the purchase 
of materials, without causing additional delay in time ? Most 
certainly they may. 

"Am I not, then, authorized to conclude, Mr. President, that 
we are not in the condition supposed by the Senator from 
Ohio [Mr. Ewing], and that the country is not, from necessity, 
to remain exposed and defenseless for half a century to come, 
not because we have not the means to put it in a state of 
defense, but because we cannot expend the money if Congress 
appropriate it? May I not hope that the resolutions will no 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 379 

longer be opposed, or appropriations withheld, on account of such 
an apprehension ? 

" I here take my leave of the resolutions, and a very few addi- 
tional remarks shall conclude what I propose to say further. 

"The subject of the loss of the fortification bill of the last 
session, and that of the $3,000,000 appropriation for immediate 
defense, added by way of amendment in the House, and rejected 
in this body, have constituted prominent topics in this debate. 
Notwithstanding my particular relation to those subjects, as 
a member of the Committee on Finance, and of the Committee 
on Conference, I do not feel called upon to enter into that 
portion of the debate at the present time at all. The action 
of both the Senate and House upon that bill and the proposed 
amendment, has long been matter of history before the country. 
The vote of every member of both Houses is shown by their 
respective journals, and the divisions had been given to the public 
through the whole press. The public judgment, as I think, was per- 
fectly formed upon the propriety or impropriety of the votes given, 
and the course pursued by each individual, before we commenced 
a debate here upon the subject. Remaining perfectly satisfied, as 
I do, with my course and my votes, I have no disposition to 
attempt now to defend them. Were it otherwise, I should have 
no hope, at this day, to change, by anything I could say here, 
the deliberate and settled opinion of the public mind in the mat- 
ter. I must, whether willing or not (and I hope and believe I 
am willing to do so), abide that judgment, and, so far as my 
action upon that subject is concerned, stand or fall by it. I 
voted for the three million amendment in all the shapes in which 
it was presented to me for my support here, and I most deeply 
regretted that it did not meet the approbation of this body. Of 
any action, out of this chamber, upon either the bill or amend- 
ment, it is not now my purpose to speak. 

" It now becomes my duty to reply to one or two remarks 
which fell from the Senator from North Carolina [Mr. Mangum], 
in the course of his impassioned address to the Senate upon these 
resolutions. That honorable Senator, from what authority I 
know not, constituted me the representative of the Albany 
regency here. I know well, Mr. President, the individuals who are 



380 Life and Times of Silas Wrioht. 

understood to be included in that designation, and I know them to 
l»e citizens of the higliest standing, honest, talented and patriotic ; 
men who serve the public faithfullj^ and capably. The trust 
thus conferred upon me is an important and responsible one; and 
I will only tell the Senator that, while I continue to discharge it 
worthily, I shall stand firmly by the country, and the whole 
country, and by its interests and honor ; and that I shall vote 
the appropriations necessary for its entire defenses, before I vote 
to give away its funds to be expended upon doubtful schemes of 
internal improvement, 

"The gentleman seems further to be occasionally deeply 
ti-<)ul)k'(l ill his mind by some imaginary body or association of 
intn which he terms the " spoils party." He is not alone in this. 
Other honorable Senators have manifested equal apprehension 
fiMiii the dreaded influence of this party, and none of them have 
If ft me in doubt as to the political party in this country upon 
which this term of opprobrium is attempted to be fastened. It 
is applied to the great democratic party of the Union. I will 
use my best efforts, Mr. President, to calm their apprehensions, 
by telling them that this party has been hitherto, with very few 
exceptions, enabled to keep the public opinion of the country 
ujion its side ; that it has done so by following, and not attempt- 
ing to govern, the popular will ; and that I have the fullest con- 
fidence it will be honest enough and wise enough to pursue the 
>:\u\v course, and fortunate enough to meet with the same success 
in future. In any event, I think I may safely assure these gen- 
tlemen that, however greedy this party may be for the honors 
and emoluments of office, as it never has so it never will find it 
necessary to make a change in the organic law of the States 
where it has control, to enable it to retain office or power. 

" I am now impelled, Mr. President, most reluctantly, to notice 
a topic introduced into this debate by the Senator from Ohio 
[Mr. Ewing], with how much relevancy I leave him to determine. 
That gentleman felt it to be his duty, in the course of his second 
address to the Senate upon these resolutions, to refer to the 
instructions given to Mr. McLane, when our minister at the 
court of St. James, and to anmiadvert upon these instructions 
with great severity. Notwithstanding this, had he chosen to 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 381 

confine himself to the mere expression of his own opinions in 
relation to the instructions, he would have called forth no reply 
from me; but when he felt himself at liberty to call to his aid 
the majority of the Amei'ican people, and to declare that they 
had sanctioned the views he expressed, that the instructions con- 
tained matter degrading to the character of our country, I was 
no longer at liberty to remain silent. [Here Mr. Ewing asked 
leave to explain. Mr. Wright yielded the floor, and Mr. E. said 
the gentleman had misunderstood him; that he had not used the 
expression imputed to him, that a majority of the American people 
had agreed with him in opinion in relation to the instructions. He 
had said nothing about the majority of the people, but had confi- 
ned himself to the expression of his own individual opinions.] 
Mr. W. said, I have then done with the subject. Mr. Presi- 
dent, I understood the gentleman to make the remark or to 
advance the opinion that I have imputed to him. If he did not, 
I have no desire to reply at all to this part of his argument. It 
was by no means my purpose to open a debate upon the propriety 
of these instructions, as I consider that a question settled beyond 
the propriety of debate here; nor did I intend to make a single 
remark which could irritate the feelings of any member of this 
body, but merely to set the Senator right in reference to the 
decision of the people upon the question. As, however, I 
misunderstood him, and he did not lay down the position I sup- 
posed, I have not a remark further to make upon this part of the 
subject. 

" In the course of this very protracted debate, Mr. President, 
one other position has been assumed by several Senators, upon 
which I must ask your indulgence to a very brief reply. The 
position is, that the great and extended popularity of the Presi- 
dent of the United States is a matter of danger to our institu- 
tions, and to the permanency of our republic. But for the 
gravity which has characterized all the remarks upon this point, 
I should have been compelled to doubt the sincerity of the 
gentlemen who have urged them upon us. The popularity of the 
President a matter of danger to the republic, sir! The popu- 
larity of the present chief magistrate dangerous ! How has that 
popularity been acquired and maintained? Has it been by some 



yH2 -^^^'^' ^^^'^ Times of Silas Wright. 

instantaneous and violent impulse given to the public mind, 
whic-h may, and sometimes does, sweep away the judgment, and 
make it subject t«» tlu' government of passion ? We are now far 
;i.l\aiicod in the seventh year of the administration of this same 
chief magistrate. Has any man ever administered the affairs of 
this government against the efforts of a more talented, vigilant 
MTid uiit iring opposition V Has any administration, since the com- 
mencement of our national existence, presented to the people so 
great a number of immensely important and vitally interesting 
questions, connected with the principles and policy of our govern- 
ment? . Have questions of this character, at any former period 
of our history, been so distinctly, emphatically and ably argued 
before the electors of the Union ? Has any opposition to any 
former administration commanded more popular men, more high 
taU'ut and character in the estimation of the country, more favor- 
able opportunities to act upon the public mind and the public 
passions and prejudices, or more jjowerful aid of every character 
and description, than have favored the opposition to the President 
of the United States, from the first year of his administration to 
the present hour? I think, Mr. President, our opponents can 
give but one answer to these interrogatories. I then ask, further, 
has ever an administration, since the days of Washington, been 
more uniformly, more strongly, more generally, more ti'iumph- 
antly sustained by the people? Has not its popularity, and the 
popularity of the President, regularly increased with every new 
assault and upon every new trial ? The answer to these ques- 
tions must be affirmative. Is, then, a popularity thus acquired 
and thus sustained to be considered dangerous to the country, 
and an omen of the speedy dissolution of our happy and prosper- 
ous confederacy ? Is the approbation of an overwhelming 
majority of the American people, obtained after more full and 
able and long-continued discussions before them than have 
liilhertu been known to the politics of the country, to be set 
down as a popularity dangerous to liberty, and threatening its 
speedy overthrow? Sir, 1 cannot subscribe to opinions so injuri- 
ous to the integrity and intelligence of the free people of these 
States. 

" How, Mr. President, was it in the days of Gen. Washing- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 383 

ton ? He was twice elected President of the United States, and 
passed through both of his official terms without even the form 
of an opposition. Has any man, from his day to this, ventured 
to pronounce his popularity dangerous to our existence as a 
nation? Was danger apprehended at the time by the patriots 
of the Revolution who surrounded him ? They did apprehend 
danger from desperate and disappointed ambition, and from 
the madness of party excitements, but none from too much 
harmony in the public mind. I have heard of no fears growing 
out of the too great popularity of the President then; I feel 



none now." 



384 Life and Times of Silas Wright, 



Chapter LV. 

SPECIE PAYMENTS. 

In tlie palmy days of the Bank of the United States, it 
was claimed by its admirers that its bills were as valuable 
as specie, and some insisted they were better. In those 
days many valued State bank notes higher than specie. 
But there has ever been a large number of our people who 
have given gold and silver a j^reference over all bank bills. 
Among these Co!. Benton — ^ often called " Old Bullion" — 
stood prominent. He was a leading advocate of "mint 
di-ops," as he called gold coin, and allowed few opportu- 
nities to escape unimproved of calling attention to his 
preferences. 

A bill was before the Senate for the payment of pen- 
sions, and he offered an amendment in the following 
words : 

"Sec. — . Avd he it further enacted, That no bank note of less 
(lenominaliou than twenty dollars shall hereafter be offered in 
payment, in any case whatsoever, in which money is to be paid 
by ihe United States or the Postoffice department; nor shall 
any bank note, of any other denomination, be so offered, unless 
the same shall be payable and paid on demand, in gold or silver 
coin, at the place where issued, and which shall not be equiva- 
1 'lit to specie at the place where offered, and convertible into 
gold or silver upon the spot, at the will of the holder, and with- 
out delay or loss to him." 

>rr. Wright, in the course of the discussion, on the 
28fh of March, 1836, presented his views on the subject 
as follows : 

" Mr. Wright said the object of the mover of the amendment to 
restrain the excesses of the present paper system of the country, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. . 385 

and infuse into our circulation a greater proportion of gold and 
silver, met his cordial and sincere approbation. He had labored, 
and was willing to labor in that cause, with that powerful and 
worthy leader; but he must say he was sorry that he had felt it 
to be his duty to make the bill now before the Senate the one 
upon which the principle of his amendment was to be tried. He 
was sorry, also, that the Senate was called upon to act upon this 
proposition until another bill which was now before the House, 
and which he soon hoped to see here, should have been acted 
upon by this body. He referred to the bill to repeal that pro- 
vision in the charter of the Bank of the United States which 
compelled all the receivers of money due to the government, for 
any consideration whatsoever, to receive the bills of that bank. 
The charter of the institution expired, by its own limitation, on 
the fourtli day of the present month ; but two years are allowed 
by the charter, after that day, to enable it to close its business ; 
and a question has arisen whether the clause of the charter mak- 
ing its bills receivable for debts due to the government expired 
with the expiration of the charter, or extended itself througli 
the two years given to close the concerns of the bank. The 
head of the Treasury department has applied to Congress to solve 
the doubts by a repeal of that section of the charter, and a bill 
had been under the consideration of the House containing the 
desired provision. But, Mr, W, asked, would it be just to the 
deposit banks, or proper in itself, to impose upon them this 
restriction in paying our appropriations, while we compel them, 
by an express provision of law, to receive all the notes, of all 
denominations, of a particular institution, and that, too, after the 
charter of that institution has expired, and while measures are being 
taken, by those who have the management of its affairs, which are 
directly calculated to make the notes in circulation of a less value 
than par at every point but one in tlie whole country? He pre- 
sumed his honorable friend from Missouri [Mr, Benton] was not 
aware of the course of policy adopted and adopting by the late 
Bank of the United States to continue the notes of that institu- 
tion in circulation throughout the country, and to press them into 
the hands of the agents of the government, and consequently 
into the deposit banks, by the force of this legal privilege 
25 



386 ^^^^ ^^'^^ Times of Silas Wright. 

extended to those notes, to the exclusion of all other notes of 
any bank in the country. It was his present object to inform 
the Senate and the country as to the policy pursuing in this mat- 
ter ; and to do so he would read parts of a correspondence with 
the Secretary of the Treasury, which had been put into his hands 
as a member of the Committee on Finance of the Senate, to show 
the necessity of the speedy passage of the bill to which he had 
referred. 

" The officer in charge of the deposit bank at Boston wrote to 
the Secretary to know whether he was considered legally bound 
to receive these bills in payment of dues to the government, after 
the expiration of the charter of the bank. The Secretary, in his 
answer, inquired of the officer of the deposit bank how and in 
what case the question could arise and become important to the 
institution under his charge, telling him he presumed the pay- 
ments for duties there had been and would continue to be made, 
chiefly, if not entirely, by checks on his own and the other banks 
of the city. To that suggestion the officer replied as follows : 

"' Heretofore, the branch bank in tliis city has redeemed the bills of the 
United States Bank, drawn here by regular course of business; consequently 
making them equal to the city bank bills, being, therefore, no difference in 
value; the payments to government have been made generally in checks 
and bills of the city banks. But this branch of the United States Bank 
now refuses to redeem any bills but of their own issue, and, consequently, 
every other city bank refuses to receive them. This depreciates in value 
all the United States Bank bills issued elsewhere, and they must be nego- 
tiated by brokers, and purchased for the purpose of paying debts due the 
government; the rate of exchange will probably cause them to be remitted 
from one city to another, when money is scarce, and to be placed in the 
hands of the bond-payers, to whom they will be equal to specie; although, 
payable at a distant part of the country, and for all other purposes, of less 
value. It was to guard, if possible, against this probable contingency that 
I addressed the department. 

'"Respectfully, 

" ' CHARLES HOOD, Caslmr: 

" The letter from which this extract is taken bears date ' Com- 
mercial Bank, Boston, March 18, 1836.' Here, Mr. President, 
we see that notes of this bank, not issued by the Boston branch, 
but by distant branches, are finding their way into the hands of 
the debtors of the government, in that town, and through them 



Lii^E AND Times of Silas Weight. 387 

into the deposit bank there, while the other banks of that city 
will not receive them at par at their counters, and the branch of 
the bank there will not redeem them. Hence they constitute a 
depreciated currency, and still our agent is bound by law to take 
them at par. Ought we, then, while our law imposes this burden 
and loss upon the deposit banks, to add, by our own voluntary 
act, the further restriction proposed in the amendment under 
discussion? Mr. W, said, he thought not. It seemed to him 
enough that we were compelling the deposit banks to receive a 
depreciated currency, and to account to us for it at par, without 
prohibiting them from making payments on our account in their 
own notes, which are at par, of denominations similar to the 
depreciated notes they are, by our law, obliged to receive. 

"But, Mr W. said, this is not all. The Secretary of the 
Treasury, having obtained this information as to the course pui'- 
suing in Boston to force these notes upon the government, made 
a call upon one of the directors of the Bank of the United States, 
appointed by the government, for further information as to the 
course taking by the late bank, and by its successor, in reference 
to its notes in circulation. The correspondence was very short, 
and he would read it to the Senate. The following is the letter 
of the Secretary : 

" ' Treasury Department, March 23, 1836. 

" ' Sir. — I will thank you to inform me what disposition is made of the 
bills of the Bank of the United States as they are redeemed — are they kept 
oa file, or destroyed — or handed over to the new bank, and by it reissued. 
And, also, to state who are the agents for the branches of the old bank; 
and whether these agents have been directed to redeem all the old bills or 
checks presented in the usual course of business, or only those issued by 
the branch for which they act. 

" ' I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

'"LEVI WOODBURY, 

" ' Secretary of the Treasury. 
" ' Henry Toland, Esq., Philadelphia.' 

" Mr. Toland's reply is in these words : 

" ' Philadelphia, March 25, 1836. 

" ' Sir. — In reply to your letter of the twenty-third instant, I beg leave 
to inform you that the circulation of the old Bank of the United States is 



388 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

reissued by the new bank, and that no new circulation under the present 

charter has been prepared; that no one of its branches is considered as 

havii;!! any legal existence after the fourth instant; and that all the notes 

of the bank and its branches are considered as payable at the Bank in 

Philadelphia. 

" ' I am, very respectfully, 

" ' HENRY TOLAND. 
" ' Levi Woodkury, Esq., 

" ' Secretary of tJie Treasury.^ 

" Here, ^Ir. W. said, is the present condition of things. We 
compel the deposit banks by law to receive at par, in payment of 
debts due to us, the notes of the late Bank of the United States, 
notwithstanding its charter has actually expired, and the institu- 
tion no longer possesses banking powers. By a regulation of the 
directors, all those notes, no matter where issued, or by what 
branch, are to be redeemed at Philadelphia, and at no other place 
in the United States. This must depreciate the value of the 
notes, for all other purposes but that of payments to the govern- 
ment, at all points distant from Philadelphia. The deposit banks 
receiving them must send them to Philadelpliia to be redeemed, 
or to convert them into current funds. They do receive them, 
and do so send them to the dead institution. Are they then dis- 
charged from further expense, and trouble, and loss, on their 
account? No, sir; the correspondence shows that another insti- 
tution, to w^hich this government is a stranger, immediately 
reissues, and returns to the place from whence they came, these 
same notes, to be again paid into tlie deposit bank as a depre- 
ciated currency, and again returned to Philadelphia at their cost, 
that they may exchange them for money. Who does not see 
that, by this process, these notes may for ever circulate as the 
legal currency of the treasury, and that they may be issued and 
diffused over every foot of our territory, to be purchased up, by 
those who owe the government, to the full extent of all the pay- 
ments to be made to it ? These notes, therefore, must constitute 
the deposits of the government in the deposit banks, and, by the 
amendment proposed, Ave prohibit their payment from those 
banks to the creditors of the government, and thus make them 
unavailable funds in their hands until they can be sent to Phila- 
delphia, and their equivalent returned. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 389 

" Of this, Mr. W. said, he did not complain, as he did not wish 
that any creditor of the government should be compelled to 
receive, in payment of his demand, depreciated paper. Indeed, 
as he understood the law now to be, no creditor of the govern- 
ment was under obligation to receive anything but gold and 
silver, and that the acceptance of bank notes from the govern- 
ment, in any case where they were accepted, was the voluntary 
act of the person receiving them. He must say, however, that, 
until we ceased to compel the State banks to receive this depre- 
ciated paper, he could not believe that we ought to interdict 
them from the circulation, in their capacity as agents of the 
government, of their own notes, which are at par value, unless 
those notes were of the denomination of twenty dollars. If these 
notes of the Bank of the United States were to be, in this disad- 
vantageous manner, but once redeemed by the deposit banks, 
they might be able to sustain themselves under the unreasonable 
burden; but when it was seen, by the correspondence he had 
read, that they were to be continued in circulation, that a single 
redemption was merely furnishing to another institution addi- 
tional means for a reissue, he must express his apprehensions that 
if, in addition to these burdens imposed, other and important 
privileges were denied to them, or greatly restricted, they might 
be driven to refuse their services to the government, and thus lay 
the foundation for a new argument for a recognition and employ- 
ment, if not a direct charter, of this new and dangerous State 
bank by Congress. 

"His apprehensions upon this subject were by no means 
diminished by finding some of the most zealous friends of the 
late Bank of the United States advocating this amendment. 
These gentlemen, so satisfied with the safety and superior value 
of a paper currency, when that bank had existence, and its notes 
constituted that currency, had now become too sudden converts 
to the dangers of bank paper, and too hastily attached to a 
metallic circulation, to gain his confidence. What were their 
reasons for this great change ? Did they desire, in this way, to 
prove that their former opinions as to one great bank were sound, 
and that such an institution alone could transact the public busi- 
ness and preserve the currency ? Did they wish to embarrass the 



390 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

deposit banks, at the moment when alarms as to their solvency 
were sounded from tliis chamber ? Did they hope that such a 
course would compel the State banks to surrender their agencies, 
and thus produce a necessity for another national bank ? Or had 
they become converts to the true, sound, democratic doctrine, 
that a metallic currency, for circulation among the people, was 
the course of wisdom and safety ? 

" He impugned no man's motives, and he would hope the latter 
was the true solution of his inquiries. He knew that was the 
patriotic object of the mover of the amendment, and he would 
go with liim, in heart and by his vote, as far as he could believe 
tliat safety or prudence would permit; but he did believe this 
amendment proposed too rapid a change. We had gone to the 
extreme in the paper circulation. We must retrace our steps 
gradually, and with care and caution, if we would avoid a con- 
vulsion dreadful in its effects, and much more dreadful in its con- 
sequences. The effects time might repair or efface, but the mea- 
sures which might grow out of the agitations and disasters might 
ingraft themselves too strongly upon our institutions ever to be 
shaken off. Experience spoke to us upon this point in a voice of 
warning which no one should disregard. Great abuses, such as 
he believed a Bank of the United States to be, always took their 
rise from public distresses, and he feared too hasty changes in 
our present currency would jDroduce these distresses and their 
consequences. 

"Mr. W. said he wished the bill to which he had referred 
might be acted upon here, before the princii^le involved in the 
amendment should be adopted. He repeated, he would go as far 
as he could think safety would permit; but he hoped our progress 
would be gradual, that it might be sure. If we could relieve the 
deposit banks from the legal obligation of receiving the notes of 
the late Bank of the United States, he thought we then miirht 
safely make some advance toward limiting them in their pay- 
ments of their own paper to the creditors of the government; but, 
until that was done, he was sorry to be compelled to act upon 
the proposition. [Mr, Davis here made an inquiry as to the 
amount of notes of the Bank of the United States in circulation.] 
Mr. W. said it was impossible for any person not possessed of 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 391 

the books and papers of the new United States Bank, chartered 
by the State of Pennsylvania, to answer that question. He spoke 
from memory, and without confidence in his correctness, when he 
said he believed the last return of the Bank of the United States 
to the Treasury department showed some twenty or more mil- 
lions of their paper in circulation; but that was no standard for 
the present time. The Senator did not seem to have understood 
the purport of the correspondence he had read. [Mr. W. here 
again read the letter from Mr. Toland, above given.] From this 
letter the gentleman will see that these notes, as they came in, 
are immediately reissued by another institution. How, then, can 
the question be answered as to the amount in circulation ? And 
the answer to-day would be no answer for to-morrow. He wished 
further to state, what he believed to be the fact, that since the 
expiration of the charter, on the fourth instant, no returns of any 
description had been made to the treasury from the late bank; 
and it was to be presumed the directors considered themselves 
no longer bound to make the returns required by the charter. 
This, Mr. W, said, was the existing state of things, and gentle- 
men must see that hundreds of millions of these notes mi^ht be 
thrown over the country, but he feared that they could not so 
well tell what institution was to redeem them. " 



'^[)2 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



CHAPTER LVI. 

DISTRIBUTIOX OF THE PROCEEDS OP THE PUBLIC LANDS. 

Tlie plethoric condition of the treasury invited plans for 
disposing of the surplus beyond the ordinary expenses 
of the government. A large portion of this excess was 
being derived from the public lands. On the 29th of 
December, 1835, Mr. Clay introduced the subject of dis- 
tributing the net proceeds of the public lands among 
the States and Territories. This 23roposition was referred 
to a committee, who reported a bill to carry it into effect, 
which underwent a long and spirited discussion. How 
far this movement Avas intended to influence the pending 
presidential election each will judge for himself. The 
debate was continued, and, on the 20th of April, 1836, 
Mr. Wright addressed the Senate, at great length, upon 
the subject. His remarks were so pertinent, clear and 
conclusive, and full of historical information, that they 
are copied entii-e. The labor of preparation for this 
argument was herculean, which few would have under- 
taken. 

" Mr. Wright said he had proposed to offer some views to the 
Senate upon tlie bill under consideration, before the question 
should be taken upon its engrossment ; that the observations he 
intended to make had no relation to the ."amendments which were 
the immediate question under debate ; but that, as the course of 
debate had seemed lo indicate that the general merits of the bill 
might be properly discussed in the present stage of the proceed- 
ings upon it, he would go on at present, unless the very late hour 
should make it the pleasure of the Senate to postpone the subject 
until a future day. 

" Before lie could enter upon the argument he had proposed to 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 393 

make, Mr. W. said he found himself bound to notice some few 
of the remarks which had fallen from the Senator [Mr. Southard] 
who had just resumed his seat. That Senator had informed the 
Senate, at various stages of his argument, that he intended to 
discard all partisan feeling and partisan remarks, and to discuss 
this important, and, in his judgment, most desirable measure, as 
a national, not a party proposition, — as a measure of general and 
universal interest, not as one promoting the temporary advance- 
ment of a particular class of politicians, or of a favorite candi- 
date, but of the whole country. 

" Mr. W. said he most cordially responded to the feelings of 
the Senator, as thus uttered and repeated, so far as any connec- 
tion of partisan politics with the discussion was involved; and, 
although differing widely from him upon the benefits to be 
derived to the public from the passage of the bill, he fully and 
entirely agreed with him in the position that the measure was 
not partisan in its character, and ought not to be made so in the 
debate. 

"It was his desire, at all times, to confine himself, in every 
discussion in this body, to the subject before it, and upon the 
present occasion he had supposed that subject was ' the land bill,' 
so called. Still he could not fail to notice that the Senator [Mr. 
Southard] had commenced his speech by a discussion of the rail- 
road bill, and closed it by a dissertation upon the insecurity of 
the deposit banks. He would not assign motives to the remarks 
of this character, which have recently been heard in the Senate 
from various quarters, and as strongly from the Senator from 
New Jersey [Mr. Southard], at the close of his speech upon the 
land bill, as from any other quarter. He did, however, upon 
this occasion, consider it his duty briefly to notice those remarks, 
and the effects which they were calculated to produce. The 
present, he said, was a time of severe pecuniary pressure upon 
the large mercantile towns. The merchants were struggling to 
preserve their credit, and to raise the means necessary to carry 
on their business and meet their engagements. The struggle 
was severe and dangerous, but, if left to themselves, he had 
strong hope it would be successful and triumphant. The suspi- 
cion and distrust calculated to arise from such a state of things. 



394 I^^P^ ^^'^ Times of Silas Wright. 

among capitalists and commercial men, are the strongest grounds 
for fear and apprehension. 

" CoiiUi it, then, be wise or just to attempt here to shake confi- 
dence anil destroy credit? Could it be beneficial to any national 
interest, ur to any individual interest, to proclaim from this hall 
that those institutions of the country, from which alone the mer- 
chants can exi^ect immediate and efiicient relief in the present 
emergency, are unsound, irresponsible and rotten ? Could it 
answer any end of })atriotism or philanthropy, by declarations 
and denujiciations of this sort, to produce runs upon these insti- 
tutions, and thus put it out of their power to afford the merchants 
that aid which the crisis demands ? Could it, in short, serve any 
valii;il)l(' purpose to add a panic to the present pressure, and by 
destroying confidence in all quarters to render certain the bank- 
ruptcy and ruin which was now merely threatened ? If the 
honorable Senator [Mr. Southard] could see any benefits likely 
to result from such a course, he could not. If that gentleman 
felt bound to act such a part, at such a time, he did not. He 
held his seat upon this floor for the performance of no such 
office, and in; must express his deep regret that any others should 
thus construe their high duties here. 

"He had seen no unusual cause for distrusting the banking 
institutions of the country, and certainly none for distrusting 
those which were strengthened by the possession of the public 
deposits. The statements made upon the subject were fallacious 
and deceptive. They were mere comparisons of the instant 
means of the institutions with the whole amount of their liabili- 
ties, a comparison which rejects entirely the item of ' bills 
receivable,' always the most important item in calculating the 
property and security of a sound and well-conducted bank. Let 
gentlemen add that single item to their statements, and they will 
show every deposit bank in the Union sound and secure. 

" Mr, W. said he was sorry the Senator had not been able to 
close his remarks as he had commenced them, in a spirit of 
candor and mildness, and unaccompanied by those expressions of 
partisan prejudice and partisan passion which too frequently 
characterized his addresses before the Senate. He had appeared 
at the commencement to be fully conscious of the propriety and 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 395 

policy of such a course in the present debate, and had avowed an 
intention to pursue it, and he, W., had witnessed his adherence 
to the intention, until near the close of his speech, with unfeigned 
pleasure; but the force of partisan feeling had got the better of 
the judgment of the Senator, and he could not bring himself to 
a conclusion without visiting upon the venerable man, now at the 
head of this government, his accustomed paragraph of denuncia- 
tion and abuse. He, Mr. W., would say to the Senator, that he 
thought this portion of his remarks had better have been omit- 
ted; that his going thus out of the way to pour abuse upon the 
President, would not, even with his immediate constituents, add 
anything to the moral force of his argument, upon a subject 
which did not call for political i-ecrimination. 

" It was not his purpose to reply to the Senator, and these few 
remarks were all he proposed to offer, in reference to his observa- 
tions, except, perhaps, to notice in passing, one or two of his 
positions which connected themselves with the train of reasoning- 
he had proposed to pursue. 

" He would, therefore, proceed with the observations he had 
intended to offer to the Senate, and, in doing so, he would attempt 

to show, 

" First. That the bill is, in effect, a bill to distribute, not the 
' net proceeds of the public lands,' as its Janguage imports, but 
the revenues of the treasury generally. 

" To establish this proposition, it will be necessary to show 
what have been the gross proceeds to the treasury of the public 
lands, from the commencement of the sales to the present time, 
what have been the expenses from the treasury, justly chargeable 
to the lands, and, in that way, to ascertain the ' net proceeds ' now 
resting in the treasury. As the latest date to which the documents 
before the Senate would enable him to state these facts, Mr. W. 
said he had taken the 30th of September, 1835, because the 
accounts on both sides had been brought up to that date, and not, 
with any precision, to a later day. 



396 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" ' The gross amount of money paid into the treasury for 
the purchase of the public lands, from 1796 to the 
SOtli of September, 1835, inclusive, has been $58,619,523 00 

•' 'To this sum the following items are added in the state- 
ment appended to the report of the Committee on 
Public Lands of the Senate, which they claim to be 
also proceeds of the public lands, viz. : 

" ' Certificates of public debt and army land 

warrants $984, 189 91 

" ' Mississippi stock 2,448,789 44 

" ' United States stock 257,660 73 

" ' Forfeited land stock and military scrip, 1,719,333 53 

5,409,973 61 

" 'Thus showing a total of gross proceeds thus ascer- 
tained of $64,029,496 61' 



" Mr. W. said it seemed to him that there were items in this 
account whicli ought not to be there, but they were, in all cases, 
so blended with items which he supposed proper, that it was 
impossible for him to distinguish the amounts, which, in his judg- 
ment, ought to be deducted from the above gross sum. 

"To illustrate his meaning: The first item was money paid 
into the public treasury; and, in the statement of an account 
between that treasury and the public lands, there could be no 
doubt that it should be debited to the former and credited to the 
latter. The second item was designated as ' certificates of public 
debt and army land warrants.' From what he had been able to 
learn, the ' certificates of public debt,' so far as they had been 
paid in lands, were properly chargeable against the treasury in 
an account with the lands, because their payment, in that manner, 
must have relieved the treasury from the payment of so much 
money. The amount, however, could not be ascertained from 
the statement, in consequence of the blending of these certifi- 
cates with the 'army land warrants.' These latter he supposed 
to be 'warrants' for revolutionary bounty lands, and he could 
not see the propriety of valuing these lands and charging them 
against the treasury in the statement of this account. If he was 
mistaken in his supposition in relation to these warrants he hoped 
some Senator would correct him, but if he was not, the debts 
against the government were debts contracted for the conquest 



Ltfe and Times of Silas Wright. 397 

of the lands, and properly chargeable against them; they were 
payable in land, and not in money from the treasury, and having 
been so paid, the lands had, to that extent, discharged the debt, 
but not secured a claim against the treasury. The amount of 
these warrants, therefore, as he understood the subject, ought to 
be deducted from the $984,189.91, which constitutes the second 
item charged as proceeds of the public lands. What proportion 
of that item was made up of ' army land warrants,' and what of 
'certificates of public debt,' he had no means of determining, 
and, therefore, he could not make such a statement of the amount 
as he should consider just. The third item was designated as 
' Mississippi stock.' This stock, Mr. W. said, he understood to 
have grown out of the celebrated Yazoo claim, and that the 
Government of the United States had become a party to the 
transaction, in consequence of having stipulated with the State 
of Georgia, as one of the considerations upon which that State 
consented to make her cession of the public lands to the United 
States, to indemnify her against the Yazoo claimants. The stock 
was payable in land, and was considered in the nature of land 
scrip; it was the consideration of the lands out of which it was 
to be paid, and the amount here set down, is the amount of the 
lands conveyed to cancel the same amount of the stock. It was, 
therefore, a debt against the lands, and, to this amount, was paid 
by the lands and canceled the debt to that extent. It did not, 
however, raise a claim in favor of the lands against the treasury, 
because the lands merely paid for themselves. This amount, 
therefore, $2,448,789.44, ought, most clearly, to be deducted from 
the statement above given of the gross proceeds of the public 
lands. 

"The fourth item is ' United States stock.' This is supposed 
to have been stock issued for loans of money for the support of 
o-overnment, and to carry on the war of the Revolution ; its pay- 
raent was chargeable upon the public treasury, and so far as the 
holders of it consented to take lands in payment, and did do so, 
the value of the lands is, most manifestly, a proper charge against 
the treasury in favor of the lands. This item, therefore, is 
believed to be properly included in this account. 

" The fifth item, designated ' forfeited land stock and military 



•398 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

scrip,' is again supposed to consist partly of a proper and partly 
of an improper charge against the treasury. The ' forfeited land 
stock,' so called, Mr. W. said, he Avas informed had accrued in 
this way : Formerly the government sold the public lands upon 
a credit of five years, the purchase-money being payable in yearly 
installments, with the condition in the cerLiticates, or contracts 
of purchase, that, in case the purchaser did not perform the 
contract by making the payments at the times stipulated, he 
forfeited all payments made prior to his default. During the 
practice under this system a large amount of forfeitures accrued, 
and the government resumed the possession of the land, the 
payments made by the respective purchasers, prior to their for- 
feitures, still remaining in the public treasury. The amounts 
thus paid and forfeited were so large as to cause the subject to 
be brought before Congress, and laws were passed directing a 
stock or scrip to be issued to the various individuals who had 
made the payments thus forfeited, or to those claiming under 
them, authorizing tlie holder of the stock or scrip to locate, at 
the minimum price of the government, a quantity of the public 
lands equal to the value of the stock so held. This, therefore, 
was in effect a mere sale of so much land for money paid into 
the treasury in advance, and, to the extent of the 'forfeited 
land stock,' is a proper charge against the treasury in a just 
statement of the account between it and the public lands. 

" The other part of this item, designated ' military scrip,' Mr. 
W. said he supposed to be scrip issued for military bounty lands 
to the Virginia line of the army of the Revolution, and to be 
subject to the same objections as a charge in this account, which 
he had previously urged against the 'army land warrants.' It 
was most clearly a debt against the government payable and 
paid in lands, and as the lands were conveyed to this government 
by all the States 'as a common fund ' ' for the use and benefit of 
the several States, according to their usual respective proportions 
in the general charge and expenditures,' it was impossible to 
conceive how a debt of this character, assumed by this govern- 

"'^ ='s one of the considerations of the cession of the lands by 

Virginia and paid in the same lands, can now be considered a 
proper charge against the common treasury, upon a settlement 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 399 

of accounts between it and those lands, with a view to ascertain 
their net proceeds now in that treasury. 

" Mr. W. said this was a heavy item, amounting to 11,719,333.53, 
and he deeply regretted that he was not able to determine and 
to inform the Senate what portion of this sum consisted of ' for- 
feited land stock,' and what portion of ' military scrip,' because 
it put it out of his power to make a precise statement of this 
part of the account in a manner which he could assent to as 
accurate and just. 

"These remarks, however, went as far as it was in his power 
to go, to purge the statement made by the Committee on Public 
Lands, as to the gross proceeds from the public lands properly 
chargeable to the national treasury. He would not attempt to 
bring down a sum, because the two compound items in the 
account, the second and the fifth, in the order he had observed 
in their examination, rendered it impossible for him to do so 
with accuracy, and it had been and should be his object to adhere 
to facts, as far as he could possess himself of them, and when 
conjecture must be resorted to, to yield all to the friends of this 
bill. 

"In consequence, therefore, of his inability to separate the 
improper from the proper portions of these two items, Mr. W. 
said he would allow the whole of both to the lands, and present 
a result stated upon that basis. It will be as follows : 

*' ' The gross amount before given, as stated by the Com- 
mittee on Public Lands, was $64,029,496 61 

'"Deduct from tliat amount the single item designated 

" Mississippi stock" 2,448,789 44 

" ' And will leave a balance of. $61,580,707 17 ' 



" This balance is larger than the true gross proceeds of the 
public lands, calculated from this statement, by the whole amount 
included in the second item, under the designation of ' array land 
warrants,' and in the fifth item, under the designation of ' mili- 
tary scrip ;' but as neither of these amounts can be ascertained 
from the documents before the Senate, although they are known 
to constitute a large majority of both the items with which they 



400 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

are connected, amounting together to 12,703,523.44, tliey will be 
overlooked, and the balance last given, including the ' army land 
warrants' and the 'military scrip,' will, for the purposes of this 
argument, be considered the correct amount of the gross pro- 
ceeds of the public lands. 

" Mr. W. said it followed, of course, that his next duty was to 
show the amount of expenses properly chargeable against the 
lands, and consequently to be deducted from the gross proceeds, 
as above ascertained, in order that he might arrive at the ' net 
proceeds ' in the treasury on the thirtieth of September last. 

"To do this from authority, and in a manner calculated to 
carry conviction to the mind, he must refer to two reports from 
the Secretary of the Treasury, made to the Senate in obedience 
to calls for the purpose, or rather to a call, as the one report was 
supplemental to, and amendatory of, the other. He referred to 
Senate documents upon the executive file, Nos. 65 and 80. The 
first, in the order of numbers, though the last in fact made, 
showed that the money paid from the treasury on account of the 
Cumberland road was $5,956,024. The second, as numbered, 
although the first and principal report, to which the former was 
a supplement, showed the following expenditures on account of 
the public lands, viz. : 

" 1. For expenditures under the head of the Indian depart- 
ment, which Mr. W. said he understood to be the expenses of 
Indian treaties, for the purchase of Indian titles to the public 
lands, the purchase- money paid to the Indians for those titles, 
the annuities in lieu of purchase-money, the expense of the 
removal and subsistence of Indians, and perhaps some other 
small items, incidental to the administration of our Indian affairs, 
amounting in all to $17,541,560.19. 

" 2. For the purchase of Louisiana, by the convention with 
France of the 3d of April, 1803, $15,000,000, and the interest 
paid upon the stock issued for the payment of the purchase- 
money, from the time of the issue until its final redemption, 
$8,529,353.43, amounting together to the sum of $23,529,353.43, 

" 3. For the purchase of Florida, by the convention with Spain 
of 22d February, 1819, $5,000,000, and the interest paid upon 
the stock issued for the payment of the purchase-money, from 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 401 

the time of the issue until its final redemption, $1,489,'768.66, 
amounting together to $6,489,768.66. 

" 4. Payments to the State of Georgia as a part consideration 
for the lands ceded by that State to the United States, including, 
in the sums charged, the value of the arms furnished to the State 
under the compact of cession, $1,250,000. 

" 5. The amount paid from the treasury to redeem that por- 
tion of the Mississippi stock (Yazoo claims) which was not can- 
celed by the grants of land in extinguishment of the stock, as 
before referred to; and here, Mr. W. said, was the strongest 
argument he could desire to show the propriety of the deduction 
he had made of the amount of the Mississippi stock, paid in 
lands, from the gross proceeds of the public lands, as given by 
the committee which reported the bill. Here was a charge by 
the treasury against the lands of $1,832,375.70, for so much 
money paid to redeem that portion of the stock which had not 
been canceled by the grant of lands, and one or the other propo- 
sitions must unavoidably be true, to wit : Either this charge by 
the treasury against the lands, on account of the redemption of 
this stock, is wrong and ought not to be made, or the charge 
made in the statement of the committee of $2,448,789.44 against 
the treasury and in favor of the lands, in consequence of the 
redemption of so much of the stock by grants of land, must be 
erroneous. Which proposition, then, can be sustained? To 
determine this question, it is only necessary to inquire how this 
indebtedness against the government attached, and upon what 
consideration it was incurred? The answers to these inquiries 
have already been given. 

" The consideration to this government was the cession of the 
public lands by the State of Georgia, and the debt attached 
when this government stipulated, as one of the conditions of the 
compact of cession, to indemnify the State of Georgia to the 
extent of these payments, against the Yazoo claimants. The 
treasury of the nation received nothing, and should pay nothing; 
but the claims grew out of the lands ceded; were a part of the 
consideration of the cession; were, by this government, made 
payable out of the lands ceded; and if money was called from 
the treasury to cancel those claims, it was so called for and paid 
26 



402 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

oil account of the lands, and formed a proper charge against 
thon. Ikiice tlic })r()priety of the item now under considera- 
tion, cliarged by the treasury against the lands, for the redemi> 
tion of ' Mississippi stock,' while the establishment of this charge 
in favor of the treasury, by the most natural and necessary con- 
sequences, rejects the charge against the treasury and in favor of 
the lands, for that portion of the stock paid in land, and not in 
money, from the treasury. 

" 6. The salaries and expenses of the General Land Office, 
amounting to 1797,748.64, which are paid from the treasury. 

" 7. The salaries of the several registers and receivers at the 
local land offices, which are separate from their commissions 
upon sales, and amount to $91,153.39. These salaries are paid 
from the treasury. 

" 8. The salaries of Surveyors-General and their clerks, and 
the expenses of commissioners for settling private land claims 
and of surveying the lands claimed. The treasury has paid for 
these services and expenses the sum of $860,567.78. 

" 9. Payments on account of the surveys of the public lands 
from the public treasury, $2,780,630.97. 

"This, Mr. W. said, brought him to the statement of the 
account between the public treasury and the public lands, as 
follows: 

" 'Charge against the treasury, the gross proceeeds of the 

public lands, as before settled $61 , 580 ,707 17 

" 'Then credit the treasury with payments on account of 
the lands, accoi'ding to tlie items as above settled, 
viz. : 

" ' Payments for the Cumberland road $5,956,024 00 

"'Expenses under the head of Indian 

Department 17,541 ,560 19 

Sum paid for Louisiana, and interest 23,539,353 43 

Sum paid for Florida, and interest 6,489,768 66 

" ' Sum paid to tlie State of Georgia 1,250,000 00 

"'Yazoo claims, paid in money at the 

treasury 1 ,832,375 70 

" ' Expenses of the General Land Office. . . 797,748 64 

" ' Salaries of registers and receivers of pub- 
lic lands 91 , 153 39 

Carried forward $57 , 487 , 984 01 $61 , 580 , 707 1 7 






LiEE AND Times of Silas Wright. 403 

Brought forward $57,487,984 01 $61,580,707 17 

" ' Salaries of Surveyors-General and sur- 
veys, and settlement of private land 

claims 800,567 78 

"'Payments for surveys of the public 

lands 3,780,630 97 

61,129,182 76 

" 'This will leave, as the whole " net pro- 
ceeds" of the public lands in the 
treasury, on the 30th day of Septem- 
ber last, the sum of $351 ,525 41 ' 



" It will be seen that this statement of the account excludes 
from the charges against the treasury the single item of ' Mis- 
sissippi stock,' amounting to $2,448,789.44, and also excludes, upon 
the other side, from the charges against the lands, the sum of 
$2,479,049.13, being money received for land by the receivers, 
and not paid into the treasury, but retained for commissions 
and other expenses pertaining to the register's and receiver's 
offices. Both these items balance themselves ; the first being a 
debt contracted for the lands and paid in lands, and the second 
money received for the lands, and paid out for exjjenses on their 
account. Neither has brought anything into the public treasury 
or taken anything from it; and as this statement is between the 
public treasury and the public lands, both items are excluded. 

" Mr. W. said he found another statement appended to the 
report of the Committee on Public Lands, giving as the entire 
amount paid by purchasers for public lands, $67,578,949.73. This 
exceeds the amount given by the committee in the statements 
before referred to, and made the basis of the preceding calcula- 
tion by $3,549,453.12. It of course embraces the $2,479,049.13, 
retained by the registers and receivers, and excluded from the 
foregoing statement of the account, as not having come into the 
treasury. This will account for so much of the excess in this 
last statement, because this is made up, not of the money paid 
into the treasury as proceeds of the lands, but of all the money 
paid by purchasers for public lands. There will still remain an 
excess of $1,070,403.99, for which Mr. W. said he had not been 
able to account, as none of the documents he had discovered 



404 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

gave any information how this amount was paid, or to what uses 
the payments had been applied. One thing, however, was cer- 
tain. It had not come into the public treasury, because all the 
statements, both from the committee and from the Treasury 
dc'partment, agreed that $58,619,523 was the whole amount of 
money which had ever been received into the national treasury 
from the sales of the public lands, up to the 30th of September 
last. That sum he had taken in his statement of the proper 
charges against the treasury in favor of the lands. It was pro- 
bable, therefore, that this excess had been expended for the lands 
before it reached the treasury, or that its payment had been 
made, not in money, but in satisfaction of some description of 
claims against the lands themselves. 

" If, then, he was right in these calculations, the Avhole ' net 
proceeds ' of the public lands in the treasury, on the 30th day of 
September, 1835, only amounted to $351,524.41 ; and, were the bill 
general and applicable to the whole of the net proceeds of those 
lands, from the commencement of the government to that day, it 
would act upon and distribute among the States but this amount. 

" It was, however, his intention, Mr. W. said, to place this 
view of the subject upon grounds which could not be contra- 
dicted, and, therefore, for the sake of the argument, he would 
suppose he was mistaken in every instance in which he had 
attempted to correct the account upon the one side or the other, 
and see how it would stand, assuming the highest sum given as 
the gross proceeds of the lands, and deducting from that sum 
the gross payments, shown by the documents from the Treasury 
department to have been made on account of the lands. 

" ' The whole sum paid by purchasers of public lands, 
including the military land warrants, certificates of 
public debt, Mississippi stock, United States stock, 
forfeited land slock, military scrip, and all other pay- 
ments of every description whatsoever, is given by 

the committee at $67,578,949 73 

The whole payments for account of the lands are stated, 

in the two documents referred to, at 63 , 608 , 231 89 

' This mode of stating the account will show a balance, 
as the "net proceeds" of tlie public lands in the trea- 
sury on the 30th day of September last, of $3 , 970 , 717 84 ' 



( ( ( 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 405 

"This result, Mr. W. said, he considered entirely erroneous, as 
embracing an amount of more than tliree millions of dollars on 
account of military land warrants, Mii^-sissippi stock, and military 
scrip, not properly chargeable against the treasury. Yet it 
would appear in the sequel that the position he had taken, that 
the bill, in effect, would not distribute the ' net proceeds ' of the 
l^ublic lands only, but also the revenues of the treasury derived 
from other sources, would not be affected, whether the one state- 
ment or the other of the account should be adopted as the true 
statement. 

" Hitherto, Mr. W. said, his remarks had been predicated upon 
the supposition that the bill was genei'al and applicable to the 
net proceeds of the public lands in all past years, and upon that 
basis he trusted he had shown that the sum which remained in 
the treasury on the thirtieth of September last, subject to distri- 
bution among the States according to its provisions, was less 
than $400,000, and certainly less than $4,000,000. 

" He would now proceed to examine the bill as it is, and its 
practical effect upon the moneys in the treasury on the day refer- 
red to. The bill is not general, but confined in its operation to a 
specific number of years, to wit : Its action commences with the 
commencement of the year 1833, and terminates with the termi- 
nation of the year 1841, extending over a period of nine years. 
By its language it purports to distribute the ' net proceeds ' of 
the money received into the treasury from the sales of the pub- 
lic lands for those years. He would not attempt to give a con- 
struction to the bill, but would take, in this particular, tlie 
practical construction given by its friends. Most, if not all of 
them, have exhibited to us in figures, and sums of money to be 
divided, the whole amounts received into the treasury from the 
sales of the public lands. They have made no deductions for 
expenses beyond those made before the money reaches the public 
treasury. In holding up this golden prize to the acceptance of 
the States, they have told us nothing of the cost to the public 
treasury of their acquirement, or of reclaiming them from the 
possession of those natives, whose inheritance they were, until 
purchased by the moneys of the nation. The bill is retrospective 
and prospective. The arguments in its favor have depended 



406 Life aad Times of Silas Wright. 

mainly, for their moving force, upon the suras received into the 
treasurv tor tlie years 1833, 1834 and 1835, from the Lands, while 
[\\v prospective arguments for the years 1836, 1837, 1838, 1839, 
1840 and 1841, have received all the embellishments of an 
imagination excited, in a pecuniary sense, by the contemplation 
of millions, with a familiarity with which the mind of the indus- 
trious citizen contemplates dollars, until the expansion of imagi- 
nary wealth has reached almost beyond the bounds of arithmetical 
enumeration. The picture thus drawn has not been shaded by 
the expenses paid from the common treasury on account of the 
public lauds, while its foreground has been fully and perspicu- 
ously occupied by the receipts into that treasury from the exhaust- 
less resource of the public domain. 

" Taking this picture as the true practical construction and 
operation of the bill, Mr. W. said he would endeavor to impress 
upon the Senate its effect upon the general revenues of the coun- 
try. From the table appended to the report of the Committee 
upon Public Lands, marked No. 1, it would be seen that the 
receipts into the treasury from the sales of public lands, from 
the commencement of the year 1833 to the 30th September, 1835, 
had been as follows : 

'"In the year 1833 |3, 967, 681 55 

" ' lu the year 1834 4,857,600 69 

" ' In the year 1835, to the 30th September 9,166,590 89 



(t ( 



Making a total of receipts during the period refer- 
red to of $17,991,873 13' 



" If the construction given to the Ijill by its friends be correct, 
this sum is to be distributed immediately upon its passage. 
Compare this amount with tlie whole ' net proceeds ' of the pub- 
lic lands in the treasury on the day when this account of receipts 
closes. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 407 

" ' The receipts upon which the bill is intended to act, are 

as above stated $17,991 ,873 13 

" 'The whole "net proceeds" of the public lands in the 
treasiuy, by a comparison of receipts and payments 
for account of the lands, from the commencement of 
the government to the 30th September last, believed 
to be more favorable to the lands than the truth will 
warrant, are only 351 ,524 41 

" ' Thus showing that the practical operation of the bill will 
be to distribute to the States, of the money in the trea- 
sury on the 30th September last, over and above the 
whole net proceeds of the public lands then in the 
treasury, a sum equal to $17 , 640 , 348 J^ ' 

" But it may be objected that this statement of the ' net pro- 
ceeds ' of the public lands is erroneous, and that the sum above 
specified is not the true 'net proceeds ' in the treasury on the day 
referred to. Mr, W. said it was his anxious desire to avoid all 
questions as to facts, that the results and consequences he desired 
to present might have their full force. He would, therefore, pre- 
sent the same result, taking the amount of net proceeds of the 
public lands, upon the day given, from the most favored calcula- 
tion toward the lands which could be made from any of the data 
furnished by the Committee on Public Lands. 

The receipts for the period covered by the bill, up to 
the 30th September, 1835, as above given, were $17,991,873 13 

The net proceeds of the public lands in the treasury on 
the sanie day, by the calculation most favorable to 
the lands, were 3,970,717 84 



i i i 



( C ( 



( i ( 



This will leave a balance of revenue to be distributed, 
by the practical operation of the bill, not a part of 
the " net proceeds " of the public lands, but derived 
from other sources, equal to $14,021,155 29 ' 

" From this examination of the provisions of the bill and of 
its practical operation, Mr. W. said he could not doubt that he 
had established the proposition with which he had set out, viz., 
that the bill, should it become a law, would have the effect, not 
to distribute the ' net proceeds ' of the public lands in the treasury 
alone, but also large amounts of the public revenues derived 



408 Life and Tuies of Silas Wrigbt, 

from other sources. The only question seemed to be whether the 
bill would tiike from the treasury, of the revenues deposited there 
prior to the 30th of September, 1835, $1'7,000,000 or $14,000,000 
not derived from the sale of public lands, but from the other 
revenues of the country; and he could not see that the principle 
involved would be varied, whether the one amount or the other 
should prove to be the true sum thus subtracted. 

" So much for the retrospective action of the bill. The pro- 
spective action would now demand consideration. The calcula- 
tions which have preceded, have only brought the account up 
to the 30th of September, 1835. The bill, upon its face, canies 
its action six and a quarter years beyond that time, to the 
close of the year 1841.* If the construction given by the friends 
of the bill to its retrospective action, is to be the construction 
which is to govern its prospective action also, then the expenses 
justly chargeable upon the lands, with very unimportant excep- 
tions, are, for the six years to come, to be charged upon the other 
revenues of the government, while the proceeds of the lands are 
to be distributed to the States, as tliey come in to the public 
treasuiy. In other words, the ' net proceeds ' of the public lands 
for each yeai*, after paying the expenses justly and properly 
chargeable ':o them from the gross proceeds, are to be distributed, 
and a further sum, equal to those expenses, f derived from cus- 
toms, or other sources separate from the land, is also to be dis- 
tributed in the same manner, and by the same ratio. 

" Is not this, Mr. W. said he would ask, the fair operation of 
this bill, which purports to divide among the States the net pro- 
ceeds of the public lauds ? What difference can there be whether 
the whole proceeds of the public lands, which reach the treasury, 

* " The bill was introduced by Mr. Clay to extend from the 1st January, 
1833, to the 31st December, 1837. The Committee on Public Lands reported 
an amendment to extend it to the 31st of December, 1841. This amend- 
ment of the committee was adopted by the Senate in Committee of the 
Whole, and was a part of the bill when Mr. Wrigut made his speech. 
Subsequently the amendment was negatived by the Senate, and the bill 
restored, in this respect, to its original form." 

t " The bill originally used the general terms, ' net proceeds of the public 
lauds,' but since Mr. Wright's remarks were made, has been so amended, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 409 

are distributed as the bill proposes, and the expenses of the lands, 
of their purchase, of obtaining possession of them, and placing 
them in a condition to be sold, be made a permanent charge upon 
the treasury, that the whole avails of the sales may be dis- 
tributed; or whether those expenses, necessary and indispensable 
to acquire the ownership of the lands, and to put them in a 
marketable condition, be paid out of the proceeds of the lands, 
and a proportion of the other revenues, equal to those expenses, 
be taken for the distribution ? It would be difficult for human 
ingenuity to point out a difference to the treasury, to the public 
interests of this government, to the States who are to receive the 
dividends; and, in his judgment, equally difficult to point out 
any difference in principle between this bill having this practical 
operation, and a bill upon its face proposing to make the same 
distribution of the surplus revenue generally. 

" Mr. W. said it was not his purpose, upon this occasion, to 
discuss the constitutionality of this bill, or of any distribution 
of the revenues of this government to the respective States, but 
he had felt bound to make this suggestion for the consideration 
and reflection of all who expected to support this bill, and might 
have any scruples as to the power of Congress to make a dis- 
tribution of the revenues generally, or of any other portions of 
our revenue than those derived from the public lands. He must 
believe he had shown that this bill, if it should become a law, 
and should receive the construction given to it by its friends 
here, would operate to distribute millions from the treasury 
which could not, by any exhibition of facts, or any form of 
reasoning, be made the 'net proceeds of the public lands,' but 

as, in substance, to adopt the construction he here contemplates. It now 
provides that the not proceeds shall be ascertained by deducting from the 
gross proceeds the expenses of the General Land Office, of the registers' and 
and receivers' offices, of surveys and of the five per cent payable to the new 
States; but propositions to deduct also the purchase-money paid to the 
Indians for the lands, annuities in lieu of purchase-money, the expense of 
treaties with the Indians for the purcliase of the lands, and the expenses of 
the removal of the Indians from the lands, were expressly rejected by 
deliberate votes of the Senate." 



41 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

must be admitted to be the proceeds of revenues derived from 
otlier sources. 

"lie liad not been able, from any documents before him, nor 
had time permitted him to obtain from the proper department 
the information necessary to determine what had been the net 
proceeds of the public lands for the years 1833, 1834 and 1835; 
but it was enough for the purpose of his argument to know, and 
to have shown, that until the year 1835, and until far into that 
year, the lands were, and in all former time had been, heavily in 
debt to the treasury, even without any claim for interest upon 
the advances made, beyond the sums of interest actually paid 
upon the stocks issued for thejiurchase of Louisiana and Florida. 
There was not, therefore, in the treasury, prior to the latter part 
of 1835, any such thing as 'net proceeds' arising from the sales 
of the public land; but a deficit of gross proceeds to meet the 
expenses which the treasury had incurred on account of the lands. 
To attempt, therefore, to take money from the treasury, Avhich 
came into it from the lands before that period for the purpose of 
distribution, will be to attempt to take money which is not there, 
which had been expended before it came there; and if money be 
so taken, it will be money derived from other sources of revenue, 
aTid not 'net proceeds of the sales of the public lands.' It will 
be a distribution, not of the proceeds of the lands, but of the 
revenues of tlie treasury generally. 

" Mr. W. said he proposed, in the second place, to attempt 
to show that if the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, for 
the years named were taken from the national treasury, and dis- 
tributed to the States, that treasury, at the present rates of the 
revenues from the customs, could not meet the ordinary expenses 
of tlie government, and carry on any system of national defense 
more vigorous or expensive than that whicli had been pursued 
for the last twenty years. 

" To come to a determination upon this point, he had examined 
with care, the expenses of the government for the last nineteen 
years, from 1817 to 1835, both inclusive; and for the sake of 
brevity, he had averaged the expenses of each four years for the 
first sixteen years of the series, giving the averages, including 
the payments towards the national debt, and also exclusive of 



Life and Times of Silas Whight. 411 

those payments. For the years 1833, 1834 and 1835, the expenses 
of each year are stated separately. The results, discarding minor 
fractions, are as follows : 

Average including Average exclusive 
paj'uients on debt, of payui'ts on debt 

For the years 1817 to 1820, inclusive 30 4-5 millions. 15f millious. 

For the years 1821 to 1824, inclusive 21 do. Hi do. 

For the years 1825 to 1828, inclusive 23 9-10 do. 12| do. 

For the years 1829 to 1832, inclusive 28i do. 14 do. 

Expenses for 1833 24^ do. 22f do. 

Expenses for 1834 24f do. 18f do. 

Expenses for 1835 no debt. 17| do 

" From the above it will be seen that the average expenditures 
from 1817 to 1832, both inclusive, separate from any payments 
towards the national debt, were about. $13,500,000 per annum; 
that in 1833 they appear to have been increased more tlian 
18,000,000 beyond those of the preceding year, and 19,000,000 
beyond the average of the sixteen previous years. 

" Mr. W. said he held in his hand a comparative statement 
between the expenses of the years 1833 and 1834, prepared for 
the purpose of showing whence arose the great difference of 
$4,000,000 between the expenditures, exclusive of payments upon 
the debt, in those two years. The analysis was long and tedious, 
and he had already wearied the patience of the Senate with too 
many figures and arithmetical calculations, to trouble them with 
this statement. He would merely remark that a very large pro- 
portion of the expenses of the Indian war, known as the Black 
Hawk war, were paid in 1833 ; that the amount paid for pensions 
in 1833 exceeded the same payments in the following year by 
more than $1,200,000, arising, as he presumed, from the fact that 
the pension law of 1832 would be lilu'ly to call heavily for pay- 
ments in 1833, not only for the accruing pensions of the year, 
but for arrears back to the date prescribed in the act ; that the 
expenses of Indian treaties were $1,000,000 in 1833 more than in 
1834; and that the indemnities from Denmark, amounting to 
$600,000, passed through the treasury in 1833 and were paid to 
the claimants, and, therefore, appear to swell the expenses of the 
year to that extent, although the government had, at no time, 
any interest whatsoever in the money received and disbursed. 



412 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

There are various other items of expenditure which varied, some 
the one way and some the other, in tlie comparison between the 
two years ; but the four above named, and the large amount of 
duties refunded in 1833, $600,000 beyond the amount in 1834, in 
consequence of the conflict of the various tariff acts, constitute 
the most prominent and important causes of the very great 
increase in the apparent expenses of the former year. 

" The expenses for the years 1834 and 1835 had averaged about 
$18,000,000, exclusive of any payments towards the national 
debt. This would be seen to be a diminution, from the expenses 
of 1833, of about $4,000,000 and an increase of from $3,000,000 
to $4,000,000 beyond the ordinary expenses of the years men- 
tioned prior to 1833. He would not attempt to account for this 
increase, any further than to remark that appropriations by Con- 
gress had been, most palpal)ly, becoming more liberal, if not 
extravagant, since the national debt was apparently rapidly 
approaching its final extinction, and the treasury remained full 
to a fault. It was not the private claims and private applica- 
tions alone which met with an easy success unknown in former 
legislation, but public and permanent appropriations were in- 
creased and increasing. He would instance the munificent appro- 
priations for this District, the late pension laws, the increase of 
the pay of the navy, and many similar laws of the last few years. 
These instances were, by no means, particularized as wrong in 
themselves, or censurable in our national legislation. No opinion 
upon the measures is called for, or intended to be expressed; 
but the laws are referred to as prominent instances of the char- 
acter of our late acts, carrying with them, from necessity, a 
material increase of the ordinary annual expenses of the govern- 
ment. From causes of this character, our ordinary expenses for 
the last two years have averaged about $18,000,000, and that, 
nothwithstanding the fact that not one cent was appropriated to 
the fortifications for the last year. What, then, can be fairly 
assumed as the amount of our ordinary expenses for the future ? 
Will any one believe that they can fall far short of the average 
of the two last years ? Must they not vary, according to the 
peculiar exigencies of different years, from $16,000,000 to 
$18,000,000? Mr. W. said, his examinations had satisfied him 



Life a.\d Times of Silas Wuight. 



413 



that they must, and that $17,000,000 was as low an average as 
should be contemplated, especially when we M^ere inquiring as to 
supplies for the common treasury. He believed a careful inspec- 
tion of the expenses of past years, and of the several laws of a 
late date, making permanent appropriations, would bring the 
mind of each Senator to the same conclusion to which his had 
been brought by the investigations to which he had referred. 

" Having thus settled, as far as that could be done by analogy 
and experience, the amount required for the ordinary expenses 
of the government, Mr. W. said it now became his duty to com- 
pare that amount with the revenue from customs, to enable the 
Senate to form a judgment upon the soundness or unsoundness 
of the proposition he had laid down. This he had done in the 
same manner in which he had examined and presented the expend- 
itures, and for the same years, and he would give to the Senate, 
in as concise a form as possible, the results presented by the 
documents. To make the comparison more simple and perfect, 
and to give it less of the dry detail of figures, he had in this 
comparison, as in the statement of the expenses, grouped periods 
of four years for the first sixteen years of the examination, and 
would present separately each of the three last years. In this 
way the two statements might be compared with each other with 
convenience, and without possession of the mass of calculations 
which led to the results. The comparison follows : 



YEARS. 


Average gross 
expenditures. 


Average reve- 
nue from cus- 
toms. 


Deficit of cus- 
toms to meet 
expenses. 


Excess of cus- 
toms over ex- 
penditures. 


1 

For the years 


Millious. 


Millions. 


Millions. 


Millious. 


1817 tolS20 


30 4-5 

21 

23 i)-10 

28>^ 

24X 

24>^ 

17% 


19% 

16 8-10 

21.V 

24 !i 

29 

lliM 

19>^ 


10% 

43€ 
2% 
4X 

'8% 


4% 
l;^ 


1821 to 1824 


1825 to 1828 


182!) to 1832 

1833 

1834 


1835 





" The foregoing comparison, Mr. W. said, afforded the ground 
for several most useful inferences in relation to the former policy 
and practices of this government. Some of those inferences he 
must bring to the notice of the Senate and the country, as he 
thought they would be useful in all time to come. 



4J4 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" The first which he would draw was that, in the nineteen 
years last preceding the present, the revenue ivoin customs had 
exceeded the expenses of the government in but two years, and 
those two Avere years when peculiar circumstances, occasioned 
either by our own legislation, or by the condition of our foreign 
relations, most satisfactorily accounted for the excesses of reve- 
nue from this source. The first was the year 1833, when the 
greatest excess appeared. The high tariff of 1828 ceased its 
operation on the third of March in that year, but the long credits 
allowed under that act necessaril}^ extended the collections of 
the customs, which accrued under it, over the whole of that year. 
In the meantime, the tariff act of 1833, known as the compromise 
act, was passed, and commenced its operation on the same day on 
which the act of 1828 ceased to operate. This compromise act 
introduced the system of short credits and cash duties, now a 
part of our commercial policy. From this state of facts every 
one must see that, during the last three-quarters of the year 
1833, double collections of the revenue from customs must be con- 
stantly making; first, the revenue upon the importations of 1832 
and the first quarter of 1833, thrown into the three last quarters 
of 1833 by the long credits allowed under the tariff act of 1828; 
and secondly, tlie revenue upon the importations of 1833, so far 
as the cash duties and short credits prescribed by the compromise 
act made the duties upon those importations payable within that 
year. Hence it was that the revenue from customs in that single 
year exceeded $29,000,000, and that without anything unusual 
or extraordinary to affect the course of trade, or give to the 
importation of dutiable goods an unnatural increase. 

"Mr. W. said it ought further to be remarked that the great 
excess of the revenue from customs over the gross expenditures 
of this year, notwithstanding the causes he had mentioned which 
conspired so vastly to increase the collections of revenue from 
this source, was to be accounted for in the fact that the payments 
toward the public debt, during the year 1833, were very trifling 
in amount, and far less than in any one of the sixteen years 
which had preceded it. Tlie excess, therefore, was a result not 
only necessary, but natural. Great accumulation from peculiar 
causes on the one side, and an almost entire failure to make pay- 



Lim AND Times of Silas Wright. 415 

mentsupou om- (lel)t, from causes equally peculiar, but to which he 
would not allude, ou the other, could not fail to produce au 
apparent excess of revenue. If, however, gentlemen would take 
the trouble to compare the receipts and payments, and the 
revenue from customs of this with the next succeeding year, 
they would require no further explanation of the excess from 
customs in 1833. The accounts of 1834 will show that heavy 
payments were made during that year upon the national debt; 
indeed, that the balance of that debt, with exceptions wholly 
unimportant, was entirely paid off and discharged; and that the 
revenue from customs fell down to less than 116,250,000, and left 
a deficiency in the revenue from this source, to meet the expenses 
of the year, of more than $8,250,000, 

"The next year, and the oidy other one which presents an 
excess of the revenue from customs over the expenditures, is 
1835. In reference to the small excess of this year of $1,500,000, 
two considerations only need be suggested. The first is, that the 
peculiar state of our relations with France during the last year, 
and especially during the last quarter of that year, gave just 
alarm to the commercial men of the country that disturbances 
might grow out of those relations, and that interruptions might be 
experienced in our commercial relations, growing out of those dis- 
turbances. Hence they were induced, toward the close of that 
year, to increase their importations to an almost unexampled 
extent. This single consideration is believed to have swelled the 
amount of revenue from customs during the last year much 
beyond the whole amount of the excess which appears. The 
second consideration referred to is, that the ordinary appropria- 
tion bill for the fortifications of the country failed to pass the 
two Houses of Congress during our last session, and, therefore, 
the expenses of 1835 were diminished by the usual amount of 
appi-opriations for those objects. Had that bill passed in the 
shape insisted upon by the House of Representatives, all know 
that the expenses of the year would have been increased much 
beyond the excess of the revenue from customs; and Mr. W. 
said he believed, had the bill passed as agreed to by the Senate, 
that excess would have been more than consumed by the expendi- 
tures it would have authorized. 



416 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

"After these considerations, he could not believe that the 
excesses in the revenue from customs over the expenditures, for 
the years 1833 and 1835, would be relied uj^on anywhere, or by 
any one, as evidence that the revenues from that source were 
more than equal to our current expenses. 

" The next inference he would draw from this comparison 
between the revenue from customs and the expenses of the 
ffOA'ernment was, that Congress had not, as has been often and 
broadly alleged, imposed duties without regard to revenue, or to 
the wants and liabilities of the government. A very few sug- 
gestions, he thought, would make this position clear and indis- 
putable. 

"From the existence of the government until the year 1835 we 
had been in debt, and any amount of revenue, come from what 
source it luiglit, after paying the ordinary appropriations, would 
be absorbed in payments upon that debt. Hence duties had been 
imposed beyond the calls growing out of the ordinary oxjienses 
of the government, and the surplus of revenue had been applied 
to the debt of the nation. As peculiar interests had, at certain 
periods, favored an increase of duties upon imports, the rates of 
duty may have gone, and at one period unquestionably did go, 
to an excessive height; but the revenues consequent upon this 
mistaken policy diminished the more rapidly the common debt, 
and thus hastened the time when high duties could find no favor, 
or even apology, with the people or with Congress. 

" Mark the sequel. Tlie national debt was diminished with a 
rapidity theretofore unprecedented, during the years 1829, 1830 
and 1831, and it became apparent, not only to every statesman, 
but to the whole country, that the period of its final extinction 
was near at hand. What was the course of the national Legisla- 
ture? Immediately to revise and reduce the tariff. The very 
protracted session of Congress of 1831-1832 is not more fresh in 
the recollection of all than is the fact that a readjustment of the 
rates of duty upon imports, and a consequent reduction of the 
revenue from customs, was the principal, if not the sole cause of 
the unusual length of that session. The result was the passage 
of the tariff act of 1832, to take effect on the 4th of March, 1833. 
Such, however, was the feeling of the country, that further legis- 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 417 

lation, in the session of 1832-1833, was demanded of Congress, 
and the compromise act arrested and qualified the act of 1832, 
and provided for further and graduated reductions, under the 
distinct understanding that, upon the final payment of the 
national debt, the public revenues were to be reduced to the 
economical wants of the government. The reduction was made 
as rajndly as it was supposed the important interests connected 
with the subject would permit, while all expected that no very- 
considerable accumulation in the treasury would be experienced 
under the operation of the law of 1833. It will hereafter be 
shown that these anticipations were entirely reasonable, and that 
their disappointment has proceeded from the unprecedented sales 
of the public lands within the few last years, and mostly within 
the last and the present year, and from no other cause of suflS.- 
cient importance to deserve a notice in this view of the subject. 
These facts he held to be sufticient to show that the legislation 
of Congress, in regard to the revenue from customs, had been 
with peculiar reference to the wants of the public treasury, and 
had been intended to be measured by those wants. 

" The remaining inference from the comparison referred to is, 
that the revenue from customs is not, as at present regulated, 
more than sufficient to meet the ordinary expenses of the govern- 
ment, and is not sufficient, unaided by the revenues from the 
public lands, to authorize any extraordinary appropriations for 
public defenses of any description, naval or military. 

"The revenue from customs for the year 1834 has been shown 
to have been sixteen and a quarter millions, and that for 1835, 
ninteen and three-eighths millions, while the average expendi- 
tures of the government for the same two years, separate from 
any payments upon the national debt, are proved to have been 
more than $18,000,000; and it is worthy of repetition that in the 
expenditures of 1 835 is not included anything for the fortifica- 
tions of the country, as the fortification bill of that year was lost 
between the two houses of Congress. 

" It has further been attempted to be shown that the average 
annual expenditures of the government, separate from any extra- 
ordinary appropriations for the public defense, cannot for the 
future be estimated at a less sum than $17,000,000. Compare, 
27 



418 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

then, the revenue from customs for the years 1834 and 1835, when 
the compromise bill fully regulated that revenue, with this esti- 
mate of expenditure, and see the result. The average of the 
revenue from that source for the two years is seventeen and four- 
lifth millions, while it is shown that that revenue for 1835, was 
increased by the apprehensions of a French war, from one to 
three millions. This will reduce the average of the two years, 
placing them upon the basis of ordinary and uninterrupted com- 
mercial intercourse, below the estimate for the ordinary expenses 
of the government. 

" Connect Avith this view another important consideration 
growing out of the compromise act, which is, that at the com- 
mencement of the present year, a reduction in the rates of duty 
of ten per cent upon the existing rates, took effect; which, by 
the lowest estimates, will reduce the revenue from customs a full 
million. Take, then, the year of excessive importations of 1835 
as the rule, and the revenue from customs will exceed the amount 
estimated as required for the ordinary expenses of the govern- 
ment by a sum too small to be made the dependence for any 
extraordinary appropriations. This inference, then, is fully sus- 
tained; and the revenue from customs at the present time is 
shown to be no more than equal to the ordinary expenses of the 
government. 

" But the Inll under consideration is perspective, and reaches 
forward in its action to the close of the year IS-tl. During this 
period, its construction, as given by its friends, charges the whole 
expenses of the land system upon the treasury. It becomes 
important, therefore, to inquire what those expenses are, and 
probably may be. The mere expenses of the present system of 
sales will be omitted, and those of a more material character 
examined. What, then, are those expenses annually ? The 
amount of money proposed to be appropriated by the bill mak- 
ing the regular annual Indian appropriations for the pi-esent year, 
is $573,000, and the appropriations provided for in it, as will be 
seen by an examination of the bill, are in their character perma- 
nent, for a longer period than the prospective operation of this 
bill. The principal items are the payment of annuities, the sup- 
port of farmers and mechanics, and other provisions stipulated 



Life and Times of Silas Wright, 419 

by existing treaties to be made for the various Indian tribes. 
Nothing is included in this appropriation bill for the expenses of 
additional Indian treaties, for the removal of Indians, or for any- 
other new expenditure under the head of the Indian department. 

" The expenses, therefore, of the purchase-money to be paid 
to the Indians for lauds, of the annuities stipulated by future 
treaties, of the making of such treaties, of the removal of the 
Indians from the lauds purcliased under them, and of all other 
things incident to our Indian affairs, and to the perfection of 
title and possession to the lands in the government, remain to be 
provided for from revenues other than those derived from the 
lands on account of which the expenses are incurred. Our pre- 
sent policy is to expedite, to the utmost extent of our power, the 
extinction of the Indian title to all the lands east of the Missis- 
sippi, and the removal of the Indians west of that river. In 
pursuance of that policy, we are constantly making new pur- 
chases and new treaties, and the expenses of holding Indian 
treaties, and for the purchase-money of new lands, are constantly 
and rapidly increasing. The expenses of the removal of the 
Indians from the lands, and of their subsistence west of the Mis- 
sissippi, are necessarily increasing in the same ratio, and if these 
accumulated expenses are to be cast upon the treasury, while the 
revenues from the sales of lands are to be subtracted from it, the 
consideration becomes one of serious import, whether the reve- 
nue from the customs, the only source of revenue remaining, 
when that from the lands shall be taken away, will sustain the 
treasury against these accumulated calls, and how far this source 
of revenue will bear the reduction provided for by the compro- 
mise act, and still supply the treasury. 

" It will not be forgotten that a reduction of ten per cent in 
the revenue from customs took effect, by the provisions of that 
act, on the first day of the present year; that a further similar 
reduction is to take place on the first day of January, 1838; that 
a still further reduction of ten per cent is to take place on the 
first day of January, in the year 1840; and that at the close of 
the year 1841, every rate of duty then above twenty per cent ad 
valorem is to be reduced to that rate, without regard to the 
amount of reduction. Mr. W. said he believed it was conceded 



420 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

on all hands that this last reduction alone would diminish the 
revenue from customs full 15,000,000 beyond the intermediate 
and graduated reduction periodically provided for in the bill. 

"Mr.W. said he was aware he should be answered that, after 
the year 1841, the revenue from the lands was, by the pro- 
visions of the bill under discussion, to be restored to the treasury. 
This answer was specious and plausible; but was it efficient and 
solid ? Look at the comparison which had been made between 
the revenue from customs and the expenses of the government, 
as both were shown to exist at the present time. The difference 
in favor of the revenue, if anything, was too trifling to be made 
matter of account, while nothing was allowed for extraordinary 
appropriations for the defense of the country. Allow, then, for 
the reduction of ten per cent in that revenue for the present and 
the next year, and it will not meet tlie ordinary expenses at their 
present rates. Carry on the calculation until you reach two 
fui'ther similar reductions, and where is the treasury to look for 
the means to answer the ordinary calls upon it ? From whence 
are to be drawn the moneys to extend and complete our navy, to 
fortify our commercial towns, to defend our extensive coast, to 
garrison our Indian frontier, to arm our militia and to perfect 
our other works of national defense projected and proposed by 
the executive departments of the government? Could he be 
wrong in saying that the means foi' these expenditures would be 
wanting, and that these valuable and most essential national 
objects could not be accomplished, in case this bill should become 
a law, and this branch of the public revenue should be diverted 
from the legitimate uses of the public treasury ? 

" To illustrate and demonstrate more clearly the soundness of 
this position, Mr. W. said he would review, in the most condensed 
manner possible, the revenue derived to the treasury from the 
public lands, for the series of years covered by his former 
examinations, in reference to the expenses of the government, 
and the revenues from customs. The statement had been derived 
from the Treasury department, and was authentic. 

" The following table shows the receipts of money received 
into the treasury, from the sales of public lauds, during the years 
mentioned : 



Life and Times of Silas W right. 421 

" 1817 |1 ,991 ,326 00 

1818 2,606,304 00 

1819 3,274,423 00 

1830 1,635,871 00 

1831 1 ,313,966 00 

1823 1 , 803 , 581 00 

1833 916,533 00 

1834 984,418 00 

1835 1 ,316,090 00 

1836 1,393,785 00 

1837 1,495,845 00 

1838 1 , 018 , 308 00 

1839 1 ,517 , 175 00 

1830 3 , 339 , 356 00 

1831 3 ,310 , 815 00 

1833 3,633,381 00 

1833 . 3,067,683 00 

1834 4,887,600 00 

1835 14 , 757 , 600 00 



" A sliirlit examination of this statement will show the fluctua- 
tions in the sales of the public lands. The period embraced by 
tbe statement cotnraences as the country was emerging from the 
embarrassments and derangements in its pecuniary affairs, grow- 
ing out of the then late war with Great Britain. In 1817, the 
receipts into the treasury were a trifle short of $2,000,000; in 
1818, more than $2,500,000; and in 1819, more than $3,000,000. 
From tliis time to the year 1829, a term of ten years, the receipts 
from this source did not, in any one year, exceed, by any con- 
siderable amount, $1,500,000, and in two of the years fell short 
of $1,000,000. In the year 1830 they rose to $2,250,000 ; in 1831 
to about $3,250,000, and in 1832 fell back to about $2,500,000. 
With the year 1833 commenced the great increase of sales which 
have caused the principal accumulation of money in the treasury 
at this moment. During that year the receipts into the treasury 
from the sales of lands were $3,875,000, in 1834 $4,800,000, 
and in 1835 $14,750,000, almost $10,000,000 beyond the receipts 
of any former year ; a net increase, in a single year, more than 
twice as large as the whole receipts of the most extravagant 
year which had preceded it. 

" Who, Mr. W. said he must ask, could expect a continuance 



422 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

of sales at this rate for any length of time ? Who were the 
purchasers who Iiad paid these immense amounts for the public 
domain in a single year? Settlers, actual settlers? No, sir; 
speculators ; men who have purchased to sell to settlers ; men 
who, before the present year shall close, will come into the mar- 
ket in competition with this government, and take from it its 
customers. What lands, Mr. President, do these men purchase ? 
Your very best and choicest lands. They j)urchase for specula- 
tion, and every consideration of inducement to the settler is fully 
regarded in their purchases — location, advantages of navigation, 
of water-power and of timber, are no less carefully secured than 
first qualities of soil. The government sells lands for cash in 
advance only, and these purchasers will sell upon credit. How 
long will it be, with these advantages, before they will draw the 
emigration from the land offices of the government to theirs, 
and take the market from us ? Once taken away, it is impossible 
that we can recover it until these lands, purchased upon specula- 
tion, are fully settled, as we cannot hope to induce settlers to 
purchase inferior lands and pay the money in advance, while 
superior lands are offered to them upon credit. What, then, are 
we to expect from our revenue from the public lands, as soon as 
the present fever for speculation in them shall subside ? Can we 
hope that those revenues, postponed until the year ]841, will 
compensate for the then reduced rates of the revenues from cus- 
toms, and thus afford to the public treasury the means to meet 
the ordinary and extraordinary calls upon it ? Mr. W. said, it 
seemed to him most clear, that if the revenues from the jjublic 
lands were diverted from the treasury for the period proposed 
by tlie bill, and the revenues from customs were reduced, as by 
the operation of the existing laws they must be reduced, both 
sources together would not, after the expiration of the year 1841, 
be equal to the Avants of the public treasury. 

" That our country was rapidly increasing in population and 
extent, and consequently and proportionably in its ordinary 
expenditures, must be apparent to all; and that, with a fixed 
tariff, the revenue from customs might be expected to increase 
with the increase of expenses, would be equally apparent ; but, 
wlien our i-ates of duty upon imports were diminishing at a rate 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 423 

per cent greater than the increase of our population and business, 
the dependence for means to supply the treasury upon that source 
of revenue must be destroyed, unless the revenues from it could 
now be shown very far to exceed the present wants of that trea- 
sury. This had not only not been shown, but he trusted the 
comparisons he had made between the revenues from customs 
and the expenses of the government, for the last nineteen years, 
and more especially for the last two years, had clearly shown 
the reverse, and had proved to the satisfaction of the Senate that 
the present revenues from the customs were no more than equal 
to the ordinary expenses of the government, without any extra- 
ordinary appropriations for any purposes whatsoever. Mr. W. 
said he felt bound to notice, in this place, that the revenues from 
the lands were, in this sense, a much more calculable dependence 
for the treasury than those from the customs. The receipts and 
expenditures from the former, the value of the lands being 
fixed by law, might be safely assumed to be regulated and gradu- 
ated by the increase of population and business of the country, 
while the rates of duty which were to graduate the latter were 
periodically undergoing so rapid a reduction, and the free articles 
were increasing so vastly upon the dutiable articles in our im[)or- 
tations, that very little certainty could be anticipated in calcula- 
tions of the amount of revenue to be derived from the latter 
source. He would give the Senate the amount of free articles 
imported for the last four years, to show the immense changes 
which the present revenue laws had produced in our trade in 
reference to the revenues from customs: 
" In the year 1832, tlie importation of articles free of duty 

amounted to $14,249 , 453 

" In tlie year 1833, the importation of articles free of duty 

amounted to 32,447,950 

" 111 tlie year 1834, the importation of articles free of duty 

amoimled to 68,393,180 

" In the year 1835, tlie importation of articles free of duty 

amounted to 77,443,236 

" From this comparison it is seen that this description of 
importations has almost dotibled, in each successive year, since 
the passage of the tariff act of 1832; and that, during the two 



424 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

last years, the value of the importations free of duty has been 
more than four times the vahie of the same articles imported 
in the two preceding years, and has come to exceed the whole 
value of dutiable importations. 

"Take away, then, from the public treasury, the revenues 
received into it from the public lands, and, Mr. W. asked, who 
could tell how soon it would want means to meet the demands 
upon it? He called upon gentlemen, and especially upon the 
parties to the compromise act, to give their careful attention to 
this part of the argument. If revenue should be wanted, did 
those gentlemen doubt what course would be taken by Congress 
to raise it? Did they doubt that resort would be instantly made 
to an increase of the rates of duty upon imports? Was any one 
wild enough to suppose that a dii-ect tax would be resorted to to 
supply the deficiency in the revenues, or that loans would be 
made upon the credit of the government, and a new national 
debt be created for this purpose ? He was sure no one who 
heard him could anticipate either of the last-mentioned modes of 
supplying the treasury ; and an increase of the indirect taxation, 
by an increase of the customs, was the only remaining measure 
within the power of Congress. He must further caution gentle- 
men to remember that this was a mode of raising revenue not 
likely to be unjjopular with a very large section, if not an entire 
majority, of the Union. He made this reference to peculiar local 
interests, not with pleasure, but with deep reluctance, and he 
could not be induced to do it from any other than a most lively 
conviction that the measure before the Senate was eminently cal- 
culated again, and that speedily, to revive agitations which had 
so recently shaken the country to an extent unknown to its 
former history, and had more strongly threatened the integrity 
and perpetuity of the Union than any other questions Avhich had 
ever before occupied the attention of Congress. He must, there- 
fore, again assure the friends of this bill that its passage, and the 
subtraction of this portion of the public reveimes from the 
national treasury, would bring that treasury to want; and that, 
in that event, its wants would be supplied by an increase of the 
duties upon imports, an increased tariff. 

" To give greater force to this part of the argument he would 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 425 

take another view of the probable revenue from customs in the 
year 1842, after the reductions provided for in the compromise 
act shall have been fully made. The importations of goods pay- 
ing duties for the last four years have been as follows: 

" In the year 1832, the value of dutiable goods imported 

was 168,000,000 

" In the year 1833, the value of dutiable goods imported 

was 63,000,000 

" In the year 1834, the value of dutiable goods imported 

was 47,000,000 

" In the year 1835, the value of dutiable goods imported 

was __6M00,0()0 

"These importations form an average of about $61,000,000 per 
annum. Suppose the increase of population and business by the 
year 1842 increases the amount of importations to 170,000,000 of 
goods paying duties; all duties are then to be reduced to the 
standard of twenty per cent ad valorem, or under. This rate of 
duty upon $70,000,000 would be $14,000,000 of revenue, in case 
all duties were at the maximum rate of twenty per cent; but it 
must be borne in mind that the duty upon a large class of articles 
is now only twelve and a half and fifteen per cent; and that, 
from that cause, the revenue to be derived from $70,000,000 
in value of dutiable importations in 1842, if the present laws 
continue in operation, cannot be estimated at more than about 
$12,000,000. Compare this amount with the sum demanded for 
the ordinary expenses of the government, and who will believe 
that the revenue from customs, at the period in contemplation, 
even with the then reduced revenue from the public lands added 
to it, will be equal to those expenses? Who does not see, if the 
present surplus in the treasury be given away to the States, and 
the revenue from the lands be taken from the treasury for six 
years to come, that the tariff must be raised, if not before the 
year 1842, at least as soon as the vast reduction of the present 
tariff, required to be made at the close of 1841, by the provisions 
of the compromise act, shall take effect? If figures and experi- 
ence can be relied upon, such a result must follow the passage of 
this bill. [Mr. Weight here gave way for a motion to adjourn.] 



426 Life axd Times of Silas Wright. 

"Thuesdat, April 2\, 1836. 

" Mr. Wright said, when addressing the Senate yesterday, he 
had attempted to establish the propositions — 

"1. That the whole amount of 'net proceeds ' of the public 
lands in the treasury on the ?fith of September, 1835, could not, 
bv the most extended and liberal calculation, equal 84,000,000, 
and was more truly but a trifle over §350,000; while the opera- 
tion of this bill would be to disti-ibute as ' net proceeds ' of the 
public lands almost §18,000,000 of the money in the treasury on 
that day ; thus, in fact, distributing from $14,000,000 to $17,000,000 
of money not derived from lands, but from other sources of 
revenue. 

" 2. That the revenue from customs, as ascertained from a 
comparison between that revenue and the expenses of the govern- 
ment for the last nineteen years, and from an examination of 
the present revenue laws and their influence upon the revenue to 
be collected under them, will only be equal to the ordinary 
expenses of the government and cannot bear any extraordinary 
appropriations for any branch of the public defenses. 

" 3. That this branch of the public revenue (the only source 
of revenue remaining to the treasury, if that from the lands shall 
be taken from it) vrill fall far short of meetins: the ordiuarv 
expenses of the government, before the close of the year 1841, at 
which time the revenues from the public lands are again to be 
restoi-ed to the public treasury, because it is only equal now to 
those expenses, and, by the existing laws, is to undergo a reduc- 
tion at about the rate of five per cent per annum until 1840, and, 
at the close of the year 1841, an arbitrary reduction to twenty 
per cent ad valorem of all duties above that rate. 

" 4. That the restoration of the revenue from the public lands 
at that period will be wholly inadequate to supply the treasury, 
because the revenue from customs will be reduced to some 
$12,000,000, or at most $14,000,000, while the ordinary expenses 
will be about $17,000,000; and because, from the sales of all the 
valuable lands, the revenues from that source will be greatly 
diminished, if not reduced to the simple expenses incurred on 
account of the lands. 

" Mr. W. said, before proceeding with his argument further, he 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 427 

•woulr] notice two positions of the Senator from New Jersey [Mr 
Southard], which had been presented by him in a new shape, as 
justifying- two imj^ortant provisions of this bill. 

" The first to which he alluded was the grant of 500,000 acres 
of land to certain of the new States, the avails of which wei'e to be 
expended in projects of internal improvements; and the reason 
for the grant was said to be that those States had exempted 
the public lands from taxation. This argument, Mr. W. said, he 
had always supposed was fully answered by the articles of com- 
pact which had accompanied the admission of those States into 
the Union. The five per cent granted to the new States, out of 
the proceeds of the sales of lands within them respectively, he 
had always understood was the equivalent for this exemption of 
the public domain from State taxation, and that it had been so 
accepted by those States in the compacts referred to. If he was 
correct in this understanding, he could not see why this further 
o-rant of half a million of acres of land to each was to be made 
upon that consideration. But the Senator further urged that this 
grant was to be justified upon the principle that the improve- 
ments to be made by the State from the avails of the land would 
cidiance the value of the remaining lands, owned by the govern- 
ment in each State, to an extent equal to the value of the 
500,000 acres granted to make the improvements. This argu- 
ment can avail little, unless the present minimum price of the pub- 
lic lands is to be raised. All the lands, after having been once 
offered at public sale, are subject to be taken by any purchaser 
at the price established by law of one dollar and a quarter per 
acre, and at that price they now sell with too great rapidity. 
Surely, then, it cannot be wise in Congress to make these 
immense grants with a view to enhance the value of the remain- 
ino- lands, if it be designed to continue the sales at the present 
established price, because, however much the value of the lands 
may be increased by the operation, that value to the government 
is not changed. The money to be paid for the lands will be the 
same without as with the improvements. Is it intended to raise 
the minimum price of the public lands ? He supposed not. He 
had heard no friend of the bill avow such an intention, and he 
felt confident he sliould not hear any such purpose avowed; 



428 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

though he must say that many of the arguments in favor of the 
bill, as well as the one he was now considering, seemed to him to 
bear strongly in that direction. 

" The second consideration to which he referred was the 
Senator's defense of that provision of the bill which gives to 
each of the new States ten per cent of the proceeds of the sales 
within them respectively, over and above their full shares of the 
balance, according to the rate of distribution adopted by the 
bill, as applicable to all the States. This was justified upon the 
ground of the rapid increase of population in these States since 
the last census, upon which the general distribution was to be 
made. It was not his object, Mr. W. said, to attempt to show 
that this provision would give too much to the new States, but 
that the rule assumed was arbitrary and unequal. He knew that 
some of the new States were increasing in population with won- 
derful rapidity, and he also supposed that some of the old States 
might not have any greater, and perhaps not as great a popula- 
tion now as in 1830. These would form the extremes, while 
other States, both old and new, were increasing at a rate which 
would form the mean between them. It could not, then, be 
equal or just to take from all the old States equally, or to give 
to all the new equally, on account of the increase or diminution 
of population since the last census, as all must see that the same 
ratio of increase or diminution will not be applicable to any two 
States, new or old. If a standard of distribution, different from 
that of the census of 1830, is to be taken, that standard ought 
to have reference to the actual population of all the States. It 
was a fact, unquestionable in his ojDinion, that some of the States, 
denominated old States by the classification made in the bill, had 
added more to their federal numbers within the five years past 
than many of the new States, and yet ten per cent of the fund 
to be divided, and which is now the common property of all the 
States in precise proportion to their federal numbers, is to be 
taken from the former and given to the latter before a o-eueral 
distribution is made. It was not material to his purpose to 
attempt to show what States would lose or what ones would gain 
by this unequal and partial provision. It was enough to have 
shown that its application must and will be unequal, partial and 



Life and Times of Silas Wuight. 429 

unjust, to establish the position tliat it cannot be a constitutional 
rule for the distribution of a common fund, 

" Mr. W. said he would notice here what he considered the 
most extravagant anticipations of the honorable Senator [^Ii-. 
Southard] as to the probable avails to the public treasury from 
the public domain. He found he had misunderstood the Sena- 
tor, and had supposed him even more extravagant in his antici- 
pations than he really was; but he had been corrected, and still 
was compelled to think that the sum, in fact, assumed, gave 
much stronger evidence of a free indulgence of a lively imagi- 
nation than of a familiarity with the facts upon which any con- 
clusion should be founded. To test the correctness of his 
impressions he had resorted to facts, and proposed to lay them 
before the Senate almost without comment. The Senator had 
told us that the public lands were to bring into the national 
treasury 11,250,000,000. How much of this is imagination, and 
how much reality ? The sales of the public lands, as a system, 
commenced in the year 1796. Up to the 30th day of September, 
1835, thirty-nine years and three-quarters, the whole sum paid 
into the treasury from the sales of the public lands is $58,500,000. 
What has been sold to produce this sum, and what calculations 
as to the product of future sales, can be safely made from our 
past experience. 

" There has been paid into the treasury, as the avails of sales 
of the public lands in the State of Ohio, from the com- 
mencement of the land system to the thirtieth of Sep- 
tember last $10, 780, 177 

" There remain to be sold in that Slate, subject to private 
entry, and not entered on the thirtieth September hist, 
4,310,366 acres, which, estimated at the minimum price, 
are worth 5,387,958 

" Making an aggregate value for the public lands in Ohio, of $22,168,135 

" This estimate must be sufficiently accurate for so general a 
calculation, inasmuch as the fact that lands in that populous 
State remaining subject to be taken at the minimum price of the 
government, and not taken, must go far to prove that their value 
in the market does not materially exceed that price. 



430 Life and Times ob Silas Weight. 

" Mr. W. said lie would then make the State of Ohio, known 
to be one of the largest and most valuable in jjoint of soil of the 
new States, the basis of a calculation of value for a portion of 
the public domain. 

" The value of Ohio, as has been seen above, is $33,168,135 

" Assume that Indiana, Iliinois, Missouri, Louisiana, Mis- 
sissippi, Alabama, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arl^ansas 
and Florida are each to bring into the treasury, from 
the sales of the public lands, as much as is to be real- 
ized fi-om those sales in the State of Ohio, and this 
Avill produce an aggregate of 331 , 681 , 350 

" And will present a total value for these seven new 

States and four large Territories, of |343,849,485 

" Deduct, then, the amount 5 already received, as follows: 

"From sales in Ohio $16,780,177 

" From sales in Indiana 9,510,481 

" From sales in Illinois 5,355,611 

" From sales in Missouri 3,886,334 

" From sales in Louisiana 99!J,087 

" From sales in Mississippi 6,837,770 

' ' From sales in Alabama 10 , 097 , 347 

" From sales in Michigan, including Wis- 
consin 3,959,896 

" From sales in Arkansas 636,643 

" From sales in Florida 556,383 

58,619,518 

" And there will remain to come into the public treasury, 
from the entire sales of these seven States and four 
Territories, the sum of 185,389,967 

" The estimate of the Senator is $1 ,350,000,000 

" Take from it what remains to be received from the sales 

j'et to be made in the country mentioned 185,339,967 

*' And there will remain a balance for the Senator to 

realize, from sources, Mr. W. said, to him unknown, of . . $1 , 064 , 770 , 033 



" So far, facts miglit furnish us with some guides in reference 
to these swollen anticipations; and, Mr. W. said, he was sure 
that no one, not even the most sanguine and enthusiastic, would 
doul)t that the calculation he had made was much more favor- 
able to the treasury than future experience would realize. He 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 431 

did not himself believe that any single State or Territory he had 
named would bring into the treasury from the sales of lands an 
amount equal to the State of Ohio; but, however that might 
prove' all must know that no such amounts are to be expected 
from Louisiana or Florida, nor can any such amount be expected 
from the entire sales in Michigan. The estimate must be many 
millions beyond what can be reasonably anticipated; and yet that 
estimate, tor the eleven large divisions of country, seven of Avhich 
are now States, and the remaining four rapidly approaching that 
condition of political existence, falls short of one-fifth of the amount 
anticipated by the Senator to be brought into the treasury from 
the avails of the public domain. That he must have included in 
his flattering estimate the whole country guaranteed by this 
government to the Indian tribes west, and now daily moving west 
of the Mississippi, is most palpable; but that any reasonable esti- 
mate of that country, and of all the acres of the Kocky Moun- 
tains in addition, must have failed to produce his sum total, Mr. 
W. said, seemed to his mind equally palpable. 

"He would now proceed Avith his argument as originally 
intended, and would examine the surplus in the treasury, with 
the view of showing that the estimates of the friends of this bill 
in regard to it were about as extravagant as those of the honor- 
able Senator from New Jersey [Mr. Southard] in reference to the 
proceeds of the public lands. The calls upon the Treasury 
department for the balance of moneys in the treasury had been 
frequent, and he thought he might say, at least, monthly, since 
the commencement of the present session of Congress. The last 
had been received at too late a perio<l to be yet printed and laid 
upon the tables of the Senators, and was a call for the balance as 
existiiig on the first day of the present month. The amount as 
o-iven by the Secretary of the Ti-easury was, according to his best 
recollection, between $31,000,000 and $32,000,000; but, as he had 
not the report to i-efer to, he would assume it to be $32,000,000. 

"It should now be distinctly impressed upon the attention of 
the Senate and the country that this amount is not the surplus 
in the treasury, but the whole amount of money in the treasury 
for any purpose of the government. It should also be equally 
strongly impressed upon the minds of all, and most especially of 



432 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

ourselves, that of all the api^ropriations of the year, which, at the 
ordinary rates, have been shown to amount to an average of from 
817,000,000 to $18,000,000 annually, those for the pay of Con- 
gress, for the pensions, and partial appropriations for the Indian 
war in Florida, are all that have yet passed and become laws. 
How are we, then, to tell what portion of this amoiant of money 
is surplus, and what is required for the expenses of the govern- 
ment ? Mr, W. said he knew but one mode of making even an 
estimate upon this point. Wishing, so far as it was possible, to 
deal with the facts in i-elation to this Avhole subject, he had 
resorted to that mode, and had examined, with considerable 
labor and care, the entire files of bills which had been reported 
to the two Houses of Congress by their respective standing com- 
mittees; selecting from each file bills of a public character only, 
and ascertaining the sums the several committees had recom- 
mended for appropriation for the public service. To protect 
himself from any charge or suspicion of unfairness in this exami- 
nation, he felt bound to give to the Senate, in substance, the title 
of each bill he had included in the statement, that all misfht 
judge whether he had mistaken tlie character of the ap^jropria- 
tions he had called public. The list was as follows: 

Bills on the Files of the House op Representatives. 

Bill No. 
51. Appropriations for support of government. 

53. Naval appropriation bill. 

54. Ordinary fortification bill. 

55. Army bill. 

G9. Expenses of Indian war in Florida. 

70. Ordinary appropriation for the Indian department. 

97. Clerks in the office of the Quartermaster-General. 

100. The erection of a marine hospital at Baltimore. 

101. The erection of a marine hospital at Portland, Maine. 
105. Clerks in the Engineer department. 

142. Erection of custom-houses at Gloucester and Plymouth. 

143. Arrears of pay to the Inspector-General. 
1.>4. To improve the harbor at St. Louis, Missouri. 

174. To continue the Cumberland road from Vandalia to the Mississippi 

river. 

175. To continue the Cumberland road from the Mississippi river to Jeffer- 

son City. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 433 

Bill No. 

192. To erect a mariue hospital at Wilmington, Delaware. 
301. To purchase sites and commence new fortirications. 
203. For the navy-yard at Charleston, S. C. 

215. Expenses of tlie Indian war in Florida, second bill. 

216. Civil and diplomatic expenses for 183(5. 

217. Outfit to Charge d'Affaires at Prussia. 

225. Prize-money to the captors of tlie frigate Philadelphia. 

234. Compensation to Commodore Barron for use of patent. 

254. Erection of new treasury building. 

259. Annual appropriations for the military academy. 

268. Salary of the judge of the Orphans' Court, Washington. 

272. Arrears of pay to Gen. Macomb. 

273. Compensation for Indian depredations. 

279. To pay tlie Connecticut militia in service during the late war. 

307. Appropriations for harbors already commenced. 

321. Compensation to the heirs of Marshtd Rochambeau. 

323. For making and improving roads. 

335. For repairing and improving the public buildings and grounds in 

Washington. 
332. For the care and preservation of the Potomac bridge. 
348. To refund certain duties on a Belgian vessel. 
352. To make good the depreciations to the Rhode Island brigade of liie 

Revolutionary army. 
363. For the erection of light-houses, light-boats, beacons and buoys, and for 

the survey of certain rivers and liarbors. 

374. To construct an arsenal in the State of j*^ortli Carolina. 

370. For the purchase of Bell's patent for elevating and pointing cannon. 

375. For the erection of an armory on the western waters. 
377. For tl.e purchase of Hall's patent for rifles. 

406. For the better protection of the western frontier. 

415. To remove a bar at the mouth of the Mississippi river. 

418. To remove a bar at the entrance of Pensacola bay, and for coustiaict- 

ing a liydraulic dock or inclined plane at that place. 

437. Further appropriation for the Indian war in Florida, third bill. 

431. To construct a road from Milwaukie to the Mississippi river. 

432. To improve the mail road from Louisville to St. Louis. 
446. To erect a marine hospital at New Orleans. 

454. To provide for additional clerks in the departments. 

457. For the better defense of the Arkansas frontier. 

483. To construct a road from Helena to Jackson, in Arkansas. 

485. To improve the navigation of certain rivers. 

492. To try experiments as to Brown's fire-ship. 

518. To erect a marine hospital at Newport, Rhode Island. 

28 



434 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Bill No. 

528. To commence the improvement of harbors for which no appropriations 

have been heretofore made. 
538. For repairs lo the wharves and the erection of a new public store at 

Stateu Island, New York. 

Bills on the Files of the Senate. 

13. To improve the navigation of the Wabasli river. 

32. To increase the pay of the clerks in the Navy department. 

54. To open roads in Arkansas. 

63. To complete the road from Lime creek to the Chattahoochee. 

81. For the support of the penitentiary at Washington. 

82. To construct roads in Florida. 

98. To purchase Boyd Reilly's patent for vapor bath. 

112. For the relief of the cities of Washington, Alexandria and Georgetown. 
131. Pay of Missouri militia in the Black Hawk war. 
135. To pay the passage of Gen. Lafayette from France. 
142. To erect a depot of arms on the western frontier of Missouri. 
146. To complete improvements already commenced upon certain roads and 

rivers in Florida. 
311. To construct certain roads in Arkansas. 

" Mr. W. said the House bills above enumerated were fifty-six, and pro- 
posed to appropriate the gross sum of $33,312,854 

•' The number of Senate bills brought into the statement 
was thirteen, which proposed to appropriate the gross 
sum of 3,456,785 

" Since this statement had been prepared, the general navy 
appropriation bill, sent from the House, had been reported 
to the Senate by the Committee on Naval Affairs of this 
body, with recommendations of amendments, adding to 
the amount originally proposed by the committee of the 
House, to be appropriated by the bill, the sum of 1 ,845,407 

" Thus showing an aggregate of appropriations of a public 
character, recommended by the proj^er standing commit- 
tees of the two Houses of Congress, and, if made, to be 
taken from the moneys in the treasury, of. . . ... $37,515,416 



" Mr. W. said he must so far explain these statements as to say 
that the file of the bills of the House was first examined, and 
the list of hills of a public character prepared ; that, upon the 
subsequent examintiou of the Senate file, a very large number of 
similar bills for the same objects, and of the same purport and 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 435 

amouut, were found upon that file ; that all such duplicate bills 
had been rejected from the statement, which accounted for the 
very small number of bills embraced as Senate bills, and the very- 
small comparative amount of appropriations recommended by 
the committee of the Senate. Had the bills upon that file been 
first examined, and the duplicates upon the House file been 
rejected, the apparent recommendations, with the exception of 
the ordinary annual appropriation bills, which always originate 
in the House, would have been substantially reversed. It had 
required much care to avoid embracing the same appropriation 
twice, in consequence of the duplicate repoi'ts in the respective 
Houses ; but as the examination had been made by himself 
personally, he spoke with great confidence when he said that no 
instance would be found in which this had been done, although a 
similarity of titles in one or two cases might lead to that sus- 
picion. 

" Let us then, said Mr. W., state the account with the treasury, and see 
what surplus we liave which is not called for by the wants of the fed- 
eral government. He had, he said, assumed the amount of money in 
the treasury to be $33,000,000 

" Deduct the appropriations before mentioned, some of which 
had, in fact, been made, and all of which had been dis- 
tinctly recommended by the proper standing committees 
of one or both Houses of Congress 27,515,046 

" And there will remain in the treasury an apparent sur- 
plus of 14,484,954 



" This would be the state of the treasury upon tlie suj^position 
that the appropriations proposed by the bills which had been 
enumerated, and no other, should be made during the present 
session of Congress. 

" Mr. W. said he did not intend to be understood as expressing 
the opinion that all the bills he had enumerated would pass, and 
much less that no appropriations other than those contained in 
those bills would be made. The above was the result upon that 
supposition ; but while he did not expect that result would 
be exactly realized in that way, there were strong grounds for 
believing that a result not more favorable to the treasury, and 
to a surplus for distribution, ought to be produced, and would 



436 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

be produced by the action of Congress during its present session. 
The grounds for this belief it would be his next duty to give to 
the Senate. The whole number of bills upon the House file 
when he made the examination was 554, of which the statement 
he had made embraced but fifty-six, leaving 498 of those bills 
not embraced in the estimate of appropriations. The whole 
number of bills upon the Senate file at the same time was 221, 
of which but thirteen were named, leaving 208 of those bills out 
of the estimate. Every member of the Senate would well know, 
what every other person who would take the trouble to examine 
the bills before the two Houses of Congress at any session might 
see, that more than ninety in one hundred of all those bills pro- 
pose an appropriation of money to a greater or less extent. 
Here, then, were 775 bills, sixty-nine of which recommended the 
appropriation of more than $27,500,000, and the appropriations 
covered by the remaining 706 were not estimated at all, but 
were known to be, at least nine-tenths of them, bills proposing 
to appropriate money, and in amounts varying from the very 
smallest sums to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some of 
thein, Mr. W. said, were entirely public in their character, but 
did not specify the sums they proposed to appropriate. Of these 
he would particularly refer to the following : 

Bills upon the file of the House of Kepresentatives. 

Bill No. 

104. For the increase of the engineer corps. 

142. Proposes to erect custom-houses at forty different ports. 

207. To put into active service all the vessels of war in ordinary and upon 
the stocks. 

212. Proposes to extend the present pension laws to all who served for three 
months in the war of the Eevolution, and to the widows of such 
deceased pensioners as were the wives of tlie pensioners at the time 
the service was performed. 

297. Provides for the payment of the Connecticut militia who were in ser- 
vice durmg the late war, with interest upon their respective claims 
from the time of the service. 

385. Directs tlie survey of certain roads, rivers, etc. 

427. Extends to the widows and orphans of militia killed in service, dying 
in service or on their return home, or from wounds received wliile in 
service, the half-pay for live years allowed by the existing laws to 
regulars serving in the infantry. 



Life and Times of Sjlas Wright. 437 

Bill No, 

459. To extend and repair the arsenal at Charleston, S. C. 

469. Reorganizes the General Land Office, and extends the force employed 
in it. 

474. To authorize a surveying district west of Lake Michigan. 

542. To remit or refund tlie duties upon the goods burned at the late confla- 
gration in New York. 

BrOLS UPON THE FILE OF THE SENATE. 

33. Arrears of pay to Commodore Hull. 

37. To establish a Surveyor-General's ofHce for the State of Illinois. 

52. To increase the corps of topographical engineers. 

70. Payment to the heirs of General Eaton 
100. To pay the Vermont militia wlio served at Plattsburgh. 
113. To purchase the stock of the Louisville and Portland canal. 
185. To add three regiments to the army of the United States. 
220. To provide moral and religious instruction for the army. 

" Here, Mr. W. said, were nineteen of the V06 bills not included 
in the estimate, because they did not name the sums which would 
be required to carry them into operation ; but the slightest exami- 
nation of the titles only will satisfy every one that these nineteen 
bills alone, were they to become laws, would require more money 
from the public treasury than the whole balance above shown to 
remain, after deducting the amount proposed to be specifically 
appropriated by the sixty-nine bills before enumerated. He was 
aware it might be said that these bills would not become laws, 
and lie did not pretend to assume that all of them would, although 
he believed several of them had passed the one or the other 
House of Congress during the present session. What he intended 
to say was, that they were bills of a public character, that their 
passage had been recommended by the appropriate committees 
of Congress, and that, to that extent, they were to be considered as 
calls which might probably be made upon the treasury, and which 
ought, at the least, to be considered before we come to the con- 
clusion that we have millions of money, which is not called for by 
any wants of the government, and which we must give away to 
get rid of it. 

"Mr, W. said, it Avould probably still be contended that so 
many of the bills to which he had referred would fail to pass 
and become laws, that, after a deduction of the amounts appro- 



438 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

priated by all which would pass, there would remain a large 
amount of money in the treasury unappropriated. In reply 
to any such suggestions, he must call to the recollection of the 
Senate some other facts, directly and importantly affecting the 
moneys in the treasury. There is a constant heavy balance of 
outstanding appropriations, which form a direct lien upon that 
money. The amount of these apj^ropriations, on the first of 
January last, was, according to his present recollection, not less 
than $7,000,000, and probably at this moment cannot be less than 
$5,000,000. 

"The three bills which have already passed, making appro- 
priations to defray the expenses of the Indian war in Florida, 
have, taken together, appropriated but $1,620,000, while it is 
estimated that that war, if now terminated, will cost the treasury 
full $5,000,000. Here, therefore, are at least $3,500,000, which 
will be wanted, and must be had during the current yeai", no 
part of which is embraced in any of the bills which have been 
mentioned. 

" After deducting all the bills iipon the files of the two Houses 
which have been particularly named, eighty-eight in number, 
there will remain 687 bills, nearly all of which propose to appro- 
priate- money. Mr. W. said he would not attempt to estimate 
the amount ; but all would admit that many of those bills were 
to pass, and that the amount of money which would be appro- 
priated by those wliich should become laws would be large. 

"There was another very important item of probable appro- 
priation which he was bound to notice in this place, but of which 
the rules of the Senate did not permit him, at present, to speak 
in so intelligible a manner as he could wish. He supposed, how- 
ever, he might say he referred to certain Indian treaties now 
before this body, two of which, if confirmed by the Senate, as 
he believed they ought to be, and hoped they would be, would 
require payments from the treasury of at least $7,000,000, The 
Senate would understand, from this reference, the particular 
subjects to which he alluded. 

"It seemed to be conceded by all that the great work of 
national defense, in all its branches, ought to command the 
peculiar attention of Congress during its present session. In the 



Life and Tibies of Stlas Weight. 439 

public bills to which he had referred, very limited appropria- 
tions for any of these objects were proposed. In the bill pro- 
posing appropriations for the navy, nothing was embraced for an 
accelerated increase of our naval force, for the procuring of 
additional materials, the construction of additional ships of wai-, 
or tlie arming, equipping and putting into actual service those 
now partially completed, beyond the ordinary annual appropria- 
tions for those objects. One bill, proposing to appropriate about 
12,500,000 for new fortifications, was the principal, if not the 
only extraordinary appropriation included under that head. 
There were not included any appropriations for the erection of 
new arsenals, except in one single instance, or any appropriations 
for arms and ordnance beyond the ordinary appropriations for 
those objects. 

"He must ask the friends of the bill to look at these facts, at 
the public wants developed in their exhibition, and to compare 
the condition of the treasury and its means, abundant as they 
choose to consider those means, with these public calls, and then 
to say how this bill is to be executed and the public wants 
answered. 

"The balance in the treasury, at the close of the first quarter 
of the present year, at the very higliest estimate from the 
proper department, was less than $33,000,000 

" We have, then, seen public appropriations recommended by 

the committees of Congress, amounting to more than 27,500,000 

' ' Leaving a surplus at this time of less than $4,5 00,00^ 

"We then find nineteen public bills, which, if passed into 
laws, will require millions to carry them into execution; a regular 
amount of outstanding appropriations of from $5,000,000 to 
$7,000,000; the expenses of the Florida war, not yet provided 
for, amounting to at least $3,500,000; the large number of 687 
bills upon the files of the two Houses of Congress, not included 
in the above estimate of those bills, and almost all of them pro- 
posing appropriations of money; provisions for Indian treaties, 
requiring, at the least, $7,000,000 ; the increased appropriations 
for tlie public defense, beyond the partial ones made in the 
bills enumerated. Take, then, the bill before the Senate, which 



440 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

proposes to distribute the proceeds of the public lands from 
the commencement of the year 1833, onward. Those proceeds, 
received into the treasury up to the 30th of September, 1835, 
have been shown to be a very trifle short of $18,000,000. It is 
now ascertained, by reports from the Treasury department, that 
the receipts into the treasury from the lands, for the last quarter 
of 1835 and the first quarter of the present year, will amount 
to full $10,000,000. Pass this bill, then, and see the effect. 

" The money in the treasury, on the first of the present month, 

was about ; $32,000,000 

"The money to be distributed under this bill, up to the same 

date, is about 28,000,000 

"Leaving on that day, in the treasury, to be applied to all the 
objects of appropriations which have been before examined, 
about $4,000,000 ' 



" Mr, W. said we should be told here that the revenues of the 
year were to be received, and would be applicable to, and suffi- 
cient for, these appropriations. How is the fact ? The receij^ts 
for the first quarter of the year are included in the above balance 
of moneys in the treasury on the first day of the present month. 
The revenue from the public lands, if this bill passes, is to be 
reserved for distribution, and is not applicable to any other 
appropriations. The means of the treasury will then be the 
$4,000,000 remaining in it as above shown, and the revenue from 
customs for the last three-quarters of the year. Suppose that 
revenue to equal the highest estimates of the friends of the bill, 
and to be $5,000,000 per quarter, or $15,000,000 for the last 
three-quarters of 1836, we shall then have $19,000,000 for the 
service of the present year for all purposes, ordinary and extra- 
ordinary, a sum just about equal to or exceeding by $1,000,000 
only, the average ordinary expenses of the government for the 
last two years. With what rapidity can the public defenses be 
prosecuted with a fund of $1,000,000 per annum ? 

" Mr. W. said it would be asked, what shall be done with the 
large amount of money in the deposit banks, if this bill be not 
passed and that money distributed to the States ? For himself, 
he was ready to answer, he would appropriate for the wants of 



Life and Times of S/las Wright. 443 

the government, and especially for the public defenses of every 
description, and in every quarter, all that can be economically 
and profitably expended, and the balance, whatever it may be, 
he would invest in securities, the payment of which, with interest, 
is guaranteed by some one of the States. In that way he would 
preserve whatever surplus revenue there may be for the present, 
and would not give it away until time had been allowed to com- 
plete the permanent defenses of the nation, and to see, from the 
practical operation of our present revenue laws, whether any 
surplus would remain after these heavy expenditures shall have 
been incurred. 

"Mr. W. said a very brief notice of two other suggestions 
should relieve the Senate from his very tedious remarks. 

"The first suggestion to which he referred was the probable 
effect upon the States of this Union, of dividing to them the 
revenues of the national treasury, from whatever source the reve- 
nue to be divided may have been derived. Our system is com- 
plex, and a full and independent preservation of all its parts is 
indispensable to its healthful action. The federal government is 
but the agent, the organ of the States — is constituted by them, 
and, without their concurrence, countenance and support, cannot 
exist. Still it is, for some purposes, superior to the governments 
of the States, and within its sphere, its action, if coming in colli- 
sion with the action of the State governments, is to prevail. 
How important then that it should be the constant care and 
interest of the respective States to keep this government most 
strictly within the sphere marked out and prescribed by tlie 
Constitution of the Union. And what will more strongly tend to 
change the feelings of the States, to put to sleep their watchful- 
ness and care and jealousy of the powers of this government, 
than to accustom them to depend upon its treasury, or its tax- 
ing power, for the means of their support, of their internal 
improvements, of their general education and the like? He 
did not intend to express distrust of the patriotism of the 
States ; he certainly did not feel any such distrust ; but is 
there not danger — great danger — in this blending of govern- 
ment interests between the nation and the States? Is there 
not danger that such a disposition of the national treasure 



442 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

may make taxation popular ? We must not forget that we are 
the representatives of the States ; that their will is, or should be, 
the law for our government in our seats here. May not the dis- 
tribution of millions from the national treasury excite expecta- 
tions of future bounty, which will induce the States to undertake 
works of internal improvement requiring years for their comple- 
tion, and means far beyond those now in our treasury to meet 
the expenditures ? May not the anticipations thus excite^l of 
future dividends be disappointed, and the necessity be thus pro- 
duced of raising additional revenues for the uses of the States, 
either by themselves or by us ? In such a state of things where 
would taxation be likely to fall? Would the Legislatures of the 
States impose direct taxes upon their immediate constituents, or 
would they, much more probably, instruct their agents and 
representatives here to raise, by the indirect taxation within the 
power of this government, the revenues the States require ? May 
not a condition of things of this description render taxation here 
popular at home, and thus convert this government into a mere 
power to raise revenue for the expenditure of the State govern- 
ments, until either the independence of the State governments is 
merged in their dependence upon the federal government for 
money, or until the unequal action of such a system shall break 
our bond of union, and thus destroy the power which oppresses 
one portion for the benefit of another portion of its common 
citizens, possessing a common right to its protecting care ? 

" May there not be danger, also, that the institutions of this 
government will be suffered to languish ; that the proper appro- 
priations for their support will be withheld ; that the army will 
be neglected ; the navy destroyed ; the fortifications discontinued; 
and even the civil and judicial departments be insufficiently sus- 
tained ; that the fund to be distributed may be enlarged ? 

" Mr. W. said he must say he felt great danger in this view of 
the action of this bill. His apprehension arose from no ungene- 
rous distrust of the patriotism of the States, but from a full and 
perfect knowledge that our local interests, in the different sec- 
tions of the Union, conflict with each other, and that no system 
of taxation which can or will be adopted, for purposes such as he 
had indicated, will act equally upon all the States. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 443 

"The other suggestion, Mr. W. said, which he proposed to 
make, was in relation to that provision of tlie bill which declares 
that the distribution under it to the States shall cease, in case the 
country shall be involved in a foreign war. It is worthy of 
remark, preliminarily, that this provision excluded those wars to 
which we were more peculiarly and constantly exposed, — the 
wars with the Indians within the limits of the States and upon 
our borders. Whatever may be the expenses of those wars in 
future, the distribution provided for is to continue, and the 
expenses of such wars are to be cliarged upon revenues to be 
derived from sources other than the public lands. What would 
be the effect of this provision upon the States, in case just cause 
of war v^^ith a foreign power should arise ? Would it be the 
expression of an unjust suspicion of their patriotism to say that 
they would find in the action of this bill a direct temptation to 
resist any such war ? It was most apparent that war must, at all 
times, embarrass the commerce and business of the people of 
the States ; and if, in addition to these objections to a state of 
war, their dividends from the national treasury, rendered more 
necessary in time of war, were to be suspended by the occurrence 
of war, was it wrong to suppose that this principle of distribution, 
accompanied by such a condition, might induce them to resist a 
declaration of war, even at the hazard of the interest and the 
honor of the nation ? Mr. W. said he feared the action of the 
bill in this respect, and, if the distribution must take place, he 
wonld prefer that this condition should not be retained, but that 
the whole subject should be left open for the future action of 
Congress, whenever any emergency shall arise calling for a 
change." 

On the 27th of April the bill was ordered to be engrossed 
for a third reading, by a vote of 25 to 21, and was sent 
to the House. After a spirited discussion in that body, 
on the 22d of June it was laid on the table by a vote of 
104 ayes and 85 nays. 



444 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter LVIL 

THE BILL FOR PURCHASING SITES AND MATERIALS FOR 

FORTIFICATIONS. 

On tlie 12tli of January, 1836, Col. Richard M. Jolinson 
reported, from tlie Military Committee of the House, a 
bill making appropriations to purchase sites and mate- 
rials for the construction of fortifications. This was 
iinderstood to be antagonistic to the whig policy of dis- 
tribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands. 
This bill occasioned a discussion which called forth the 
best talent of both parties. The bill passed the House, 
and in the Senate was debated until the 26th of May, 
when it passed by a vote of yeas 31 to nays 9. On the 
19th Mr. Weight addressed the Senate, in favor of the 
bill, as follows : 

" Mr. Weight said, when the subject was last before the Senate 
ho had moved an adjournment, with the intention, more particu- 
larly, of making a reply to some of tlie remarks of tlie Senator 
from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun], who had then just addressed 
the body against the bill. So much time, however, had elapsed 
that the reply intended had been principally abandoned ; and, 
as he did not see that Senator in his seat, and understood he 
was absent upon official duty, he should only notice such of Jiis 
observations as were material to the views he proposed to pre- 
sent upon the merits of the bill. 

"On the eighteenth of February last, the Senate came to a 
final vote upon a resolution offered, at an early day of the session, 
by the honoi-nble Senator from Missouri [Mr. Benton], upon the 
subject of appropriations for the public defense. All would 
recollect the declaration of the mover of the resolution, made 
at the time of its introduction, that he considered it as antago- 
nistic to the two propositions then before the Senate for the 



Life and Timeh of Silas Wright. 445 



ea- 



distribution, among the States, of the public moneys in the tr 
sury; the first the Land bill, and the second the ])n)positi()n of 
the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] so to amend ihe 
Constitution of the United States as to authorize an entire distri- 
bution, for a series of years, of the surplus revenues, from what- 
ever source derived. None could have forgotten the protracted 
debate upon that resolution, or the views entertained and ex- 
pressed by those who took part in the debate. Upon the one 
side, the. declarations of the honorable mover were sustained and 
enforced, and upon the other side the policy of a, system of forti- 
fications was resisted by some, while others admitted and advo- 
cated the policy and expediency of such a system but denied 
that the land bill was antagonistic to the proposed appropriations. 
The subject occupied the principal attention of the Senate for 
some four weeks, and a very slight modification only was adopted. 
"The palpable and declared object of the resolution was to 
present to the Senate the great and vital question, whether the 
surplus revenues in the national treasury should be given away, 
as gratuities to the States, before the public defenses were pro- 
vided for, or whether those defenses should first command the 
attention and favor of the national Legislature. The resolution, 
as drawn and offered, related to the surplus, and necessarily pre- 
sented this question. The modification merely removed the 
application of the resolution from the surplus revenue to the 
whole revenues of the government, and made the pledge more 
broad than the mover of the original resolution had proposed. 
In its amended shape, it stood in the following words : 

'■'■'■ Besolved^ That so much of the revenue of tlie United States, and the 
dividends of stock receivable from the Bank of the United States, as may 
be necessary for the purpose, ought to be set apart and applied to the 
general defense and permanent security of tlie country.' 

" In this shape it was voted upon by the Senate ; and, upon a 
call of the yeas and nays, every Senator then in his seat, to the 
number of forty-two, out of the forty-eight members of the 
body, recorded his name in favor of it. 

" Mr. W. said he thought he had a right to ask whether this 
vote ought not to have been considered a pledge to the country, 
on the part of the Senate, that all necessary appropriations for 



446 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

the public defense should be first made out of the public moneys 
in the treasury before any other disposition should be attempted 
to be made of those moneys ? He thought the inquiry could not 
be considered impertinent or improper ; and lie called the atten- 
tion of those Senators who had voted for that resolution to its 
fair implication, and to the measure now under discussion. This 
was the first measure for general public defense, which had been 
presented for the action of the body, since the passage of the 
resolution. Were the defenses it proposed necessary, so as to 
bring it within the pledge contained in the resolution ? 

"To answer this inquiry, it would be proper to look further 
into the resolution itself, and into the information it had elicited. 
In addition to the general pledge before quoted, it contained a 
call upon the President, and, through him, upon the proper 
departments of the government, as to the appropriations neces- 
sary and proper to be made for the various branches of the pub- 
lic defense, naval and military. An answer to that call, most 
full and satisfactoiy, had been given, and for his present purpose 
it was only necessary to refer to the clear and strong letter from 
the Secretary of War, to whose department that branch of the 
public defenses provided for by this bill particularly pertained. 
The Secretary speaks with especial reference to the bill under 
discussion, and therefore his remarks are susceptible of the most 
clear and unquestionable application. The bill was reported 
from the Committee on Military Affairs, recommending appro- 
priations for the commencement of new fortifications at nineteen 
new points upon the sea-coast. The Secretary had adopted 
twelve, and, for the present, rejected the remaining seven appro- 
priations. He had recommended delay and further examination 
merely as to the latter class; while he had, in the most clear and 
unequivocal language, urged action — prompt, full and efficient 
action — as to the former class. 

" Mr. W. said, as attempts had been made to cast doubt 
and obscurity over the opinions of the Secretary in this matter, 
he should speak for himself. He would read from the nine- 
teenth and twentieth pages of the report, and the language was 
as folloAvs : 



Life and Times of Silas Wrwiit. 447 

" ' It cannot be doubted but that fortifications at tlie following places, enu 
merated in this bill, will be necessary : 

At Penobscot bay, for the protection of Bangor, etc. 

At Kennebec river. 

At Portland. 

At Portsmouth. 

At Salem. 

At New Bedford. 

At New London. 

Upon Staten Island. 

At Soller's Flats. 

A redoubt on Federal Point. 

For the Barancas. 

For Fort St. Philip. 

"' These proposed works all command the approach to places sufficiently 
important to justify their construction under any circumstances that will 
probably exist. I think, therefore, that the public interest would be pro- 
moted by the passage of the necessary appropriations for them. As soon 
as these are made, such of the positions as may appear to require it can be 
examined, and the form and extent of the works adapted to the existing 
circumstances, if any change be desirable. The construction of those not 
needing examination can commence immediately, and that of the others as 
soon as the plans are determined upon. By this proceeding, therefore, a 
season may be saved in the operations.' 

" Such, Mr. President (said Mr. W.), are the expressions and 
the opinions of the head of the department, upon which the call 
has been made, on this important subject of fortifications. Are 
those expressions and opinions equivocal ? Has not the Secre- 
tary told us that he believed ' the public interests would be pro- 
moted by tlie passage of the necessary appropriations for them ?' 
Has he not told us that, by making these appropriations now^ ' a 
season maybe saved in the operations?' Where, then, is the 
doubt ? Where the equivocation ? The bill originally contained 
provisions for nineteen new works. The Secretary selects and 
recommends, unequivocally, appropriations for tw^elve of the 
nineteen, and as unequivocally recommends a postponement of 
appropriations and further surveys and examinations as to the 
remaining seven. He meets fairly and fully the whole bill, and 
gives his opinions and his reasons as to every part of it. Whence, 
then, the pretense that his recommendations are obscure, and his 
opinions doubtful, as to the works still embraced in the bill? 



448 Life and Times op Silas Wright. 

The Committee on Military Affairs, since the receipt of the report 
of the Secretary, have considered his views, and made their bill 
conform to them. They have recommended that the appropri- 
ations for the seven works, for which the Secretary does not 
recommend immediate appropriations, should be strickn from the 
bill, and the Senate has unanimously agreed to the amendments. 
They have been made, and the bill is now precisely what the 
Secretary tells us the public interests require that it should be. 
Whence, then, Mr. W. said, he again asked, these attempts to 
prove that the opinion of the Secretary was doubtful as to the 
remaining twelve new fortifications? The answer was clear and 
conclusive, and he should only repeat what had been already 
said by the honorable Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Preston] 
when he gave it. Gentlemen had taken the expressions of the Sec- 
retary, applicable to the seven works for which he recommended 
the suspension of immediate appropriations, and had applied 
them to the twelve works in reference to which he had given 
the opinion that the public interests would be promoted by the 
passage of the necessary appropriations for them. Any one who 
would read with care the report of the Secretary would detect thi^ 
error, and absolve that officer from all obscurity or equivocation. 

"It should be further remembered that the President, upon 
whom the call was made, has especially and fully indorsed the 
recommendation of the Secretary of War. So far, therefore, as 
the information and opinions of the executive departments can 
establish a necessity for the Avorks for which the ])ill under con- 
sideration provides, we are able to pronounce, without doubt or 
hesitation, that they are necessary to the public defense. 

"What, then, Mr. W. said, he must ask, is the condition of 
the Senate in its action upon this bill, after the pledge given to 
the country in the resolution above quoted ? Were we at liberty 
to refuse the appropriations, unless we disputed the necessity of 
the works ? It seemed to him not. It seemed to him we were 
estopped by our own acts, unless we were prepared to assert and 
show, in opposition to the report of the Secretary, and the con- 
curring opinion of the President, that the works proposed to be 
constructed are not necessary to the national defense, within the 
fair scope and meaning of our own resolution. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 449 

"He must, then, appeal to the Senate, and to every individual 
Senator, to know whether there is one member of that body \v\m 
will deny, or even question, the necessity of one of the woi-ks 
now proposed by the bill. He did not believe he should hear a 
Toice raised in doubt, much less in denial, of the necessity of 
each and every one of these works. How, then, was the Senate 
to refuse the appropriations, and presei-ve the pledge it had given 
to the country, that the public defenses were first to occupy its 
attention, and that provision for these defenses, so far as such 
provision might be necessary, was tii-st to be made from the 
public moneys in the treasury, and the public revenues to be 
received into that treasury. 

"Objections to the bill, however, had been made, and Mr. W. 
said he would detain the Senate for a few moments, to examine 
some of those objections. 

"The first in order which he would notice was, that new dis- 
coveries in the art and science of defense might supersede the 
present propositions; that the power of steam and its application 
to the defenses of a nation were yet little known and had been 
little tried, and that future experience might prove that this 
power would furnish a preferable substitute for the permanent 
defenses proposed by the bill. In answer to this objection, he 
would merely ask, in sincerity and candor, whether a single 
member of the Senate had brought his mind to the belief that 
our important commercial towns, our principal and most useful 
harbors, and the mouths of our great navigable rivers, which 
Avere susceptible of perfect defense by permanent, stationary and 
durable fortifications, were to be left to any description of movable 
and floating defenses, whether moved and governed by steam or 
by the natural elements ? Did any man, who had in the slightest 
degree examined this subject, delude himself with the notion 
that a commercial nation, with a coast more extended and exposed 
than any other nation of the world, and with the means in its 
treasury for the construction of permanent and secure defenses, 
was either to wait for new discoveries as to the power and appli- 
cation of steam, or to trust its wealth and commerce to the pro- 
tection of floating batteries instead of well-constructed and 
immovable fortifications ? For himself, Mr. W. said, his enthu- 
29 



450 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

siasm as to modern improvements had carried his mind to no 
such conclusions. He had not doubted, and did not now doubt, 
that steam, as connected with harbor defense, was to be made a 
most important agent in the great work in which we were 
engaged, and he was prepared to go as far as experience and 
wisdom would warrant in providing for its use; but he would 
not, for one moment, admit that the important points upon our 
coasts susceptible of permanent land defenses were to be left to 
the uncertain and doubtful protection of moving batteries of any 
descrij^tion. He had not heard it advanced that the science of 
defense by fortifications was very imperfect, or that improve- 
ments were to be soon anticipated; and having come to the con- 
clusion that these were the defenses which the country required, 
at the points named in the bill, and that the art of constructing 
them had been, in all essential particulars, as perfect for centuries 
as it now is, he was prepared to give his support to the bill, with- 
out waiting the uncertainty of valuable improvements by new 
discoveries. 

" The next objection he proposed to notice was, that we want 
information as to some of these proposed works; that the neces- 
sary examinations, surveys and estimates have not been made, 
and that we act in the dark in making appropriations without 
them. This objection, Mr. W. said, he was willing to admit was 
specious and plausible ; but as to these particular works he 
thought he should be able easily to show that it was much more 
specious than solid and substantial. He had understood from the 
remarks made by the chairman of the Committee on Military 
Affairs [Mr. Benton], when this bill was first under discussion, 
that all these points had been selected as points proper for the 
construction of permanent fortifications by the first board of 
engineers which ever examined our Atlantic coast with a view to 
its permanent defense ; that several subsequent examinations, by 
competent and skillful engineers, had been made for the same 
purpose, and that all had selected these points as capable of 
being defended by the erection of forts and batteries, and as of 
suflicient importance, either as commercial towns, or safe and 
convenient harbors and roadsteads, to render such defenses neces- 
sary to the protection of our commerce and the security of the 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 451 

country; and that conjectural plans and estimates ol' the works 
required had been repeatedly made at all the points. He now 
received the assent of that honorable Senator to the correctness 
of his understanding in these particulars, and was, therefore, not 
mistaken in assuming this as one ground for the immediate action 
of the Senate. But there was another and a stronsrer srround. 
A call had been made upon the War Department, upon this sul)- 
ject, and the answer, full, complete and apparently satisfactory 
to all, was before us. That department was in possession of all 
the information which had been collected as to the necessity and 
propriety of these works. No one would doubt the competency 
of the head of that department to form a safe and correct opinion 
upon the sufficiency of that information for the discreet action 
of Congress. What, then, does the Secretary say in reference 
to the fortifications provided for in this bill ? 

" ' It caunot be doubted but that fortifications at the following places, 
enumerated in this bill, will be necessary. 

" ' I think, therefore, that the public interest would be promoted by the 
passage of the necessary appropriations for them. As soon as these are 
made, such of the positions as may appear to require it can be examined, 
and tlie form and extent of the works adapted to existing circumstances, if 
any change be desirable. Tlie construction of those not needing examina- 
tion can commence immediatety, and that of the others as soon as the plans 
are determined upon. By this proceeding, therefore, a season may be saved 
in the operations.' 

" These are the opinions of the executive officer of the gov- 
ernment especially charged with these works of defense, and 
fully aware of all the information in the possession of the gov- 
ernment in relation to their necessity and propriety. Does he 
tell us we want more information before we can act ? No, sir. 
He tells us it cannot be doubted that fortifications at the points 
mentioned will be necessary. Does he tell us that we want fur- 
ther examinations, surveys and estimates, before we can hazard 
an ajjpropriation ? No, sir. He tells us that when the appro- 
priations have been made, such of the positions as may appear to 
require it can be examined, and the form and extent of the works 
adapted to existing circumstances, ' if any change be desirable.' 
Does he tell us that nothing is to be gained by making the 
appropriations now ? No, sir. He tells us that, by this proceed- 



452 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

ing, a season may be saved in the operations. 80 much, Mr. 
President, said Mr. W., for the objection that we have not infor- 
mation to authorize these appropriations. 

"Another objection is, that we have not engineers to superin- 
tend these works; and that, unless the corps of engineers be 
increased, the appropriations, if made, must remain unexpended. 
Mr. W. said this was an objection to this class of appropri- 
ations which had been frequently advanced upon former occa- 
sions, and he had repeatedly attempted to answer it ; in which 
attempt, he was sorry to say, he had been so unsuccessful 
that the same objection again met him here. He must repeat 
his former opinion, that the money of the government would 
command engineers of science, skill and experience; and that 
gentlemen were entirely mistaken in supposing that the corps of 
engineers, holding military commissions under the United States, 
monopolized all the science, experience or skill to be found in 
this widely extended country. But, for the sake of this argu- 
ment, he would admit the necessity of an increase of the corps 
of engineers; and what would be the effect upon the duties of 
the Senate in relation to this bill ? An act for the increase of 
that corps, to the extent recommended by the head of the corps, 
had long since passed this body, and been sent to the House of 
Representatives. We, therefore, had discharged our duty in 
this matter, and he was for continuing to discharge that duty in 
a manner consistent with our own action. It was not for the 
Senate to wait the passage of one of its bills through the other 
branch of Congress, before it would act upon another and more 
important public measure. Let us, said Mr. W., follow our own 
action, be consistent with ourselves, carry out our own measures, 
a7id leave the House of Representatives to their proper responsi- 
bilities. This objection has no foundation with us, because we 
have already obviated it by our legislative action, and it does 
not become us to assume that any other branch of the govern- 
ment will not discharge the same duty. 

"A further objection to the passage of this bill is, that if the 
appropriations be made, the money cannot be expended. It is 
asserted that the oi-dinary appropriations for the fortifications 
already commenced will cost more money than it is in the power of 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 453 

the officers of the government to expend, and tliat hence addi- 
tional approj^riations for new works cannot be expended. Mi-. 
W. said he did not see that the conclusion followed from tlie 
premises. If it were true that money could not be expended at 
one point upon our extended coast, for the want of lal)orers, he 
could not see that it necessarily followed that laborers could not 
be procured at other points. The evidence upon which this 
objection rests is a report from the head of the engineer depart- 
ment, stating that some eighty or one hundred thousand dollars, 
appropriated for the construction of a fort at Throg's Neck, near 
the harbor of New York, was not expended during the last year, 
because laboi'ers were not procured; that invitations to laborers 
were published and circulated in the city of New York, and in 
several of the eastern cities, without effect. The report, no 
doubt, states truly the facts, as far as it goes; but there are 
other facts required to enable us to form a correct judgment as 
to the inference authorized from this failure to procure laborers. 
What prices were offered? Were they equal to the current 
prices of similar labor in the cities where the invitations were 
circulated ? Was the season of the year that when laborers are 
usually disengaged and at liberty to make contracts ? Were 
the character and condition of the work such as the mass of 
laborers were competent to perform, and would be willing to 
engage in at ordinary wages? These and other inquiries should 
be answered before we are authorized to conclude that money 
would not command labor in the immediate vicinity of our great 
commercial metropolis. 

" Mr. W. said this objection had been repeatedly urged during 
the discussions of the present session, and he had himself repeat- 
edly attempted to answer it, — he was mortified to see how unfor- 
tunately, as the objection continued to be urged with undimin- 
ished earnestness and confidence. He must, therefore, again 
repeat what seemed to him to be a most perfect and com- 
plete refutation of the idea that money will not command 
labor in and about New York, to any extent to which 
money is offered and paid. All will remember that since 
we have been here, during our present session, the city of 
New York has been visited bv a conflascration unequaled in the 



454 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

history of this continent. From five to seven hundred extensive 
buildings, in the very heart of the city, were hiid in ashes in the 
course of a few hours. He had recently seen several intelligent 
merchants from that city, some of whom were among the suf- 
ferers by the fire. All agreed in assuring him that by the time 
he would probably pass the city on his way to his home, after the 
adjournment of Congress, he would almost want a guide to point 
out to him where the fire had extended; that new buildings were 
rising upon the ruins of those destroyed by the fire, with a 
rapidity wholly incredible ; that it almost seemed that an entii-e 
city was rising from the earth, as by the power of magic; that 
the present month would entirely complete a large proportion of 
the new buildings. This, Mr. President, has been mostly done in 
the season of winter, and a winter, too, unequaled in severity 
and duration. And can it be true that at that point the United 
States cannot command labor by money ? Can private enterprise 
accomplish so much in a few months, and yet the government 
not be able to spend a few thousand dollars upon works of 
defense, because labor cannot be procured for money ? Sir, the 
conclusion is contradicted by facts, is contradicted by experience, 
is contradicted by the plainest dictates of sense and reason. The 
government must not expect to obtain labor but by paying the 
current prices for the labor it requires ; and at those prices its 
money will go as far, be as sure to command labor, and to obtain 
it, as will the money of private citizens. 

"But, Mr. President, said Mr. W., there is another view of this 
subject. What is the course of these expenditures ? For what 
are expenses first to be incurred? The points at which the forti- 
fications are to be erected are fixed in the bill ; but you have 
acquired no title to the necessary grounds, and no jurisdiction 
fi-om the States over those sites, when j^ou have purchased them. 
Both of these steps must be taken before common prudence will 
warrant the commencement of the proposed erections. In all 
cases the purchase of the grounds must require an expenditure 
of money, and the grant of the necessary jurisdiction must require 
time for the action of the respective State Legislatures. It will 
not be supposed that the application will be made for the grant 
of jurisdiction until Congress place at the disposition of the 



Life and Times of ISilas Win out. 455 

proper executive department the means to make the purchase of 
a site, in case the jurisdiction be obtained. Mr. W. said, to illus- 
trate his meaning, he would speak of the proposed appropriation 
for his own State ; because he was more fully acquainted willi 
the facts in that case than any other embraced in the bill, lie 
referred to the appropriation of $20.0,000 for the purchase of the 
site of Fort Tompkins and its dependencies, and for the erection 
thereon of fortifications to protect and defend the main entrance 
into the harbor of New York. This site is so plainly designated 
by the nature of the ground, and the formation of the harbor, 
that no person who ever passed the point can have failed to see 
and mark it. Indeed, the State, during the late war with Great 
Britain, and when the national treasury was destitute of means 
to prosecute the war, and much more to defend our coast, took 
this matter into its own hands, possessed itself of this site, and 
erected upon it three works of defense : Fort Tompkins upon the 
heights, to defend the outer works from approach by land ; Fort 
Richmond upon the water, to defend the Narrows; and Fort 
Hudson, an extensive water-battery, to act in aid of Fort Rich- 
mond, and to reach an enemy in his approach to the Narrows 
from the outer harbor. These works still belong to the State, but 
had not been kept in repair since the war. The consequence was, 
that they had gone into a state of dilapidation, and he was 
unable to say what their value might now be to the government. 
He had understood that they cost the State some $400,000. He 
knew that repeated overtures had been made by the State to this 
government to purchase them, with the site, and that the Legis- 
lature had repeatedly authorized negotiations for their sale and 
transfer to the United States. Nothing had hitherto been 
effected, and he had recently been informed that the Legislature 
of the State, now in session, had again authorized the sale and 
transfer. In this case this must be the first step, and the pay- 
ment for the site the first item of expenditure. So far, therefore, 
as that may go, no objection would be interposed that the money, 
if appropriated, could not be expended ; nor would it be said that 
time was required, or information wanted, to accomplish these 
objects. He did not suppose that any other point was precisely 
similarly circumstanced ; but he did suppose that in all cases, 



456 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

whether the sites were the property of the States, or of indivi- 
duals, a title was to be secured to the United States and paid for 
out of the respective appropriations ; and that the proper juris- 
diction, to protect the interests of the government, was to be 
obtained from the respective State Legislatures in the mode 
pointed out by the Constitution. Means, therefore, would be 
required, as well as time, in all cases ; and, so far as both were 
concerned, the application to the case of Staten Island would be 
measurably applicable to all the other cases embraced in the bill. 

"What were the next subjects of expenditure? Mr. W. said 
it seemed to him that the materials for the construction of a for- 
tification would next require the expenditure of money. The 
stone, brick, lime, sand, timber, iron, and all other materials, 
must be purchased and brought to the spot. Was there any 
objection to making the contracts and procuring the delivery of 
these materials during the time required to negotiate for the 
site, and procure the grant of jurisdiction ? He could see none. 
Would not these preparatory steps occupy time enough to allow 
all further necessary surveys and examinations to be made ? He 
was sure no one could doubt the fact ? What, then, was the 
strength of the objection that the money could not be expended, 
or that more time was required for surveys and examinations ? 

"But, Mr. W. said, there was another view of this objection 
of time, which seemed to him as absurd in practice as it must be 
fatal in [jrinciple to these works of public defense. He referred to 
that class of the opponents of this bill Avho urged the necessity 
of delay in making these appropriations, and at the same time 
pressed upon us measures for the gratuitous distribution among 
the States of the very moneys in the treasury with which these 
fortifications were to be constructed. The land bill, which had 
passed this body but a few days since, was one of these measures, 
and some gentlemen had been frank enough to put their opposi- 
tion to this bill upon the ground that it might interfere with the 
moneys proposed to be distributed under the provisions of that 
act. Others, and much the largest number of the friends of that 
measure, had placed their opposition to this bill upon the ground 
of want of information of surveys, examinations and estimates ; 
and yet they had not failed to urge, with all the ardor of the 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 457 

former class, the giving away to the States the very means by 
which alone these most important and confessedly necessary 
modes of public defense can be erected, when the information 
they seem to desire shall have been obtained. What is the value 
of such professions of friendship for the defenses of the country V 
What will be the use of the information souo-ht when the means 
of proceeding with the works shall have been given away ? For 
what valuable purpose shall we learn that the positions nanied in 
the bill are well selected, the fortifications wise and necessary, 
the plans economical, and the appropriations proposed only rea- 
sonable for present objects, Avhen the treasury shall have been 
exhausted in bounties to the States, and we have not a dollar at 
command to be applied to new or additional defenses ? Mr. W. 
said he must say that gentlemen who assumed this position sub- 
jected themselves most strongly to the suspicion that a division 
of the public moneys, and not the prosecution of works of 
defense, was their darling object. To the other class, who 
openly and frankly oj^posed the bill upon the ground that it con- 
flicted with the schemes for a disti'ibution of the public moneys, 
he must award greater fairness. They met what he considered 
to be the true question, openly and without disguise. He must, 
however, here bring to the memory of these opponents of the 
bill now under discussion some of the arguments used by those 
who opposed the passage of the land bill through the Senate. It 
was contended, Mr. W. said, by himself and others, that any 
system of distribution, such as was proposed by that bill, would 
tend to impede the necessary public appropriations, to arrest the 
prosecution of the necessary public defenses, and to embarrass 
the national government in all its departments, and in every 
branch of the public service. It was urged that such distribution 
would necessarily lead the States into measures involving heavy 
and long-continued expenditures; that the arguments, estimates 
and flattering calculations of the friends of that bill were emi- 
nently calculated to produce anticipations of future dividends 
which could not be realized; that the members of both Houses 
of Congress were the representatives of the States and of the 
people of the States, and must and ought to be strongly influ- 
enced by the wishes and interests of those whom they respectively 



458 Life and Times ob Silas Weight. 

represented; that when disappointment as to the amounts to be 
divided should come upon the constituent body — as come that 
disappointment must — the necessities of the States, growing out 
of these delusive expectations, would be paramount to the neces- 
sities of this government with the representative bodies ; and 
that approj)riations for the permanent defenses of the country, 
appropriations for the navy, appropriations for the army, and 
appropriations for all other branches of the public service would 
be injuriously restricted or wholly refused, that the sum to be 
divided to the States, as surplus revenue, might be inci'eased. 

" Mr. W. said, when he urged these arguments, he did not 
even dream that he should see their correctness demonstrated 
before the close of the present session of Congress. He did not 
then believe that the evil tendencies of these plans for distribu- 
tion would be so soon and so boldly developed. In this he had 
been entirely disappointed. Already we had met, in open avowal, 
the influence he had feared ; and, upon this first measure of pub- 
lic defense which had been presented to the Senate since the 
passage of that dangerous bill, we had heard opposition distinctly 
avowed upon the ground that the appropriations might conflict 
with the various plans for a distribution of the moneys in the 
treasury. If he had before merely doubted, he should now be 
m.ost perfectly confirmed in his hostility to these projects, so long 
as any branch of the public service called for the expenditure of 
the public moneys on hand. 

" He would now, Mr. W. said, proceed to examine, very 
briefly, one or two of the objections offered by the honorable 
Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] to the passage of the 
bill under discussion. The first objection of that honorable 
Senator which he proposed to notice was, the want of engineers 
to superintend the expenditures proposed; and he had anticipated 
the argument to be drawn from the action of the Senate, in the 
increase of the engineer corps to about twice its present strength, 
by the assumption that this increase would not bring engineers 
of experience, and would not therefore, at present, authorize an 
increase of appropriations. 

"We are, Mr. President, said Mr. W., if the position assumed 
by the opponents of this bill be admitted, in a condition unknown 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 459 

to the history of any people who have ever before existed upon 
the face of the earth. We have no debt. Our treasury is full 
to overflowing. We are defenseless in almost every respect. And 
yet we cannot be defended, according to the doctrines of some, 
because our money will not purchase the labor necessary to con- 
struct the defenses we need. According to others, we cannot be 
defended, because we have not engineers of skill and experience 
to direct the expenditure of the money, if we appropriate it. An 
increase of our engineer corps will not aid us in this particular, 
because such an increase will not bring with it the requisite skill 
and experience; and, as a necessary consequence from these con- 
clusions, we must not increase the engineer corps, because, with- 
out an increase of appropriations for fortifications, we shall have 
nothing for the engineers to do, who may be added to the corps. 
Was ever, Mr. President, so helpless a condition of any people 
before known ? Money in the treasury to an excess, but nobody 
will work for it ; defenses of every description imperatively 
required, but men of skill and science cannot be found to super- 
intend their construction. Therefore, we must give away the 
money, and wait for the defenses of the nation, until the treasury 
shall contain other means, until money will command labor, and 
until engineers can be educated to superintend the public works. 
" The honorable Senator put forth another objection to this bill, 
which was even less anticipated from that quarter than was the 
objection which has just been examined. It was, that the bill is 
in competition with the several propositions for the distribution 
of the surplus revenue. Remembering the constitutional opinions 
held and expressed by that Senator but two years since, on the 
subject of a distribution of the surplus revenue among the States, 
Mr, W. said it was impossible that he could have expected oppo- 
sition to this bill from that quarter upon that ground. In the 
Senator's speech upon the removal of the deposits, made in the 
Senate in January, 1834, are found the following remarks : 

'"There is another aspect, said Mr. C, in which this subject maybe 
viewed. We all remember how early the question of the surplus revenue 
began to agitate the country. At a very early period, a Senator from New 
Jersey [Mr. Dickerson] presented his scheme for disposing of it, by distri- 
buting it among the States. The ftrst message of the President recora- 



460 Life and Tuies of Stlas Wright. 

mended a similar project, which was followed up by a movement on the 
part of the Legislature of New York, and I believe some of the other 
States. The pubUc attention was aroused, the scheme scrutinized, its gross 
unconstitutionality and injustice, and its dangerous tendency of absorbing 
the power and existence of the States, were clearly perceived and denounced. 
The denunciation was too deep to be resisted, and the scheme was aban- 
doned. ' 

"Such, Mr. W. said, were the opinions of the Senator upon 
the subject of a distribution of the surplus revenue to the States; 
and could he have expected from him an objection to the passage 
of a bill providing for the defenses of the country, for the more 
rapid prosecution of a system of defenses with which he had 
once been officially and closely connected, because it comes in 
competition with propositions for a distribution of the surplus 
moneys, so recently pronounced grossly unconstitutional, unjust 
and dangerous to the power and existence of the States ? [Here 
Mr. Preston remarked that his colleague was not in his seat, 
but detained from it by official duties, and he hoped Mr. W. 
would consent to suspend his remarks until Mr. C. should be in. 
Mr. W. replied that he regretted very much the absence of the 
Senator from South Carolina, as he would greatly have preferred 
to have replied to him in his presence ; but as he had no remarks 
of a personal character to make, he cotild not consent to delay 
the bill by a suspension of his argument.] Mr. W. proceeded: 
He had nothing to add on the subject of this great change of 
opinion on the part of the Senator, except that it had surprised 
and disappointed him, coming from that quarter. 

"Another position of the Senator was not less singular and 
extraordinary, and called for a veply. It was the assertion that 
the bill was not intended to expedite the construction of fortifi- 
cations, btit to retain the public money in the banks where it was 
now deposited; and he went so far as to say that, were the 
objects of the bill what they purported to be — the erection of 
fortifications — he would support it. Mr. "W. said, in the absence 
of that Senator, he would take no notice of this unjust and ungen- 
erous imputation upon the motives of the friends of this bill, but 
would examine the position, supposing it had any foundation in 
fact. The bill upon its face contains as direct and positive 
appropriations as any other appropriation bill which has been 



Life and Times of SitjAS Wrigut. 46X 

presented to congress. If passed, it will devolve ui)on the 
proper executive department the immediate duty of obtaining 
the proper sites and commencing the several works, and of pro- 
ceeding in their construction with all possible dispatch, so far as 
the means appropriated will go. Has any one suggested, or will 
any one believe, that any sinister intentions, on the part of those 
who may vote for the bill, will influence the executive officers in 
the prompt and faithful discharge of their duties under it? Had 
the Senator from South Carolina suggested, or could he suggest, 
any change of the form of the bill, so as to make the appropria- 
tions more positive and unconditional, or the duty to expend the 
money more imperative and urgent ? He hazarded nothing in 
giving a negative answer to these inquiries. Language could 
not improve the bill in these particulars; nor had it been inti- 
mated that there was either doubt or condition to be found upon 
its face. He would, then, leave the Senator, and the Senate, to 
determine how far he was sustained in placing his opposition to 
a proper and positive law upon the ground of his suspicion that 
some who support it entertain intentions unfavorable to its exe- 
cution. 

" He must present this objection of the Senator in another light, 
and see whether it may not be made quite as api^licable to him- 
self as to those who advocate and support the defense bills. 
His charge is, that they desire to retain the money in the dejiosit 
banks. What disposition does he propose to make of it? for he. 
is the author of a variety of propositions upon the subject. 
The last, and that one on which he presumed the Senator 
intended to rely, was, to deposit the money in the treasui-ies of 
the several States, without interest. But wlien, and upon what 
terms, is the money to be transferred from the deposit banks to 
the several State treasuries ? When, and as soon as, the Legis- 
lature of each State shall have passed a law, pledging the faith 
of the State for the repayment of the money upon the call of 
Congress. Nearly all those Legislatures have closed their annual 
sessions, and all probably will, before this proposition can become 
a law, if it is to become a law at all. Much the larger number 
of them do not again convene until T^ovember, December and 
January. The money, therefore, according to the disposition 



462 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

proposed by the Senator himself, must remain in the deposit 
banks for the whole of the present year, at the least; while, in 
several of the States, the legislative sessions are biennial only; 
and, in one State at least, it is said its Constitution prohibits the 
the Legislature from contracting a debt for any purpose. Mr. W. 
said, were he to charge the honorable Senator with a design to 
continue the money in the deposit banks, and assert that he had 
made this dilatory proposition for a different disposition, to accom- 
plish that design, would the Senator consider him courteous or 
just? Would the Senate consider the imputation of such motives 
to any member of the body parliamentary or proper ? It was not 
his purpose to make any such charge. It was not his habit to 
impute motives to the members of this body for acts done under 
their official responsibility; and he did not believe that such a 
charge, if made against the honorable Senator, would be founded 
in fact. He did not believe the Senator, in making the proposi- 
tion upon which he had commented, hud been actuated by any 
design to retain the money in the deposit banks, but the reverse. 
Yet he did believe that such a design imjiuted to that Senator 
would have precisely as much foundation in justice and truth as 
the similar charge preferred by him against the friends of the 
defense bills; and he trusted he had shown that the effect of the 
Senator's proposition would be to retain the money in the banks 
much longer, and much more certainly, than any effect to be 
apprehended from the passage of these bills. 

" Mr. W. said his intention and desire was to aj)ply the money 
in the treasury to a constitutional use. The money is the avails 
of ' taxes, duties, imposts and excises,' laid and collected by, or 
under the authority and direction of. Congress, ' to pay the 
debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare 
of the United States.' The first great constitutional use to which 
the public moneys were to be applied had been fully performed. 
The debts had been fully paid. The second, to ' provide for the 
common defense,' it is the object of this bill to prosecute more 
vigorously and efficiently. For that reason he supported it, and 
most earnestly hoped it would be successful. Yet it was not for 
him to impute improper or unworthy motives to those who thought 
the Constitution and the public interests would be better served 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 463 

by giving away this money to the States, or what was, in his 
judgment, precisely equivalent, lending it to tlie States without 
interest, and upon a declaration upon their respective statute 
books that they would repay the princii)al whenever their re[)rc- 
sentatives in the two Houses of Congress should order them to 
do so. He thought, however, so long as he abstained from the 
imputation of motives to those who advocated such a disposition 
of these moneys, he was entitled to an exemption from imputation 
as to his own motives, in urging a use of the money such as the 
honor and interests and safety of the country required and 
demanded, and such as the Constitution not only authorized but 
directed in terms." 



464 Life and Tuies of Silas Weight. 



Chapter LVIII. 

VIEWS CONCERNlNa CERTAIN STATE LEGISLATION IN 1836. 

Upon the expiration of the charter of the Bank of 
the United States, in 1836, the Legislature of Pennsyl- 
vania incorporated it as a State institution, with many 
peculiar and unusual powers and privileges, and, among 
others, autliorizing it to engage in buying and selling 
stocks. This attracted the attention of thoughtful men 
and excited their alarm. Tlie Legislature of New York 
chartered banks at the session of 1836, and with lavish 
prodigality lent its credit, with utter disregard to all 
fears of loss, and engaged in the construction of pauper 
canals, whose tolls have never paid for their repairs, 
attendance and other expenses. Observing and reflecting 
men anticipated and predicted the natural and inevitable 
consequences. New York promulgated excellent theories, 
which were counterbalanced by examples which would 
not bear the test of scrutiny. Mr, Wright watched 
these with painful anxiety. To each surrounding circum- 
stance he gave its full weight. The just tendency and 
natural influence of every act was considered, and com- 
municated to his trusted friends without reserve. Thomas 
M. Burt, Esq., then connected with the Albany Argus as 
a proprietor, wrote him concerning the action of the 
State Legislature. He had long known Mr. Burt, and 
had unlimited confidence in his honesty of purpose and 
the purity and unselfishness of his motives, and unhesi- 
tatingly trusted his discretion and judgment. He there- 
upon wrote him, in the spirit of candor and frankness, 
the following letter, in which he expressed his anxieties 
and fears concerning the action of the Legislature, in 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 4(35 

which he substantially predicted the paper-money explo- 
sion, which burst upon the country within the ensuing 

year : 

"Washington, April 8, 1836. 

" My Dear Sir. — Your note has remained a long time without 
an answer. The only excuse I can give you is ray business 
engagements here. Indeed, I have never found myself so unac- 
countably engaged at any former session of Congress as during 
most of the present. You ask the opinion of our friends here as 
to the course of Pennsylvania in the November elections. 1 
have seen no one who doubts that the violent and unprincipled 
and corrupt course of tlie Legislature of that State, during its 
late session, will strengthen very much the republican vote, at 
the polls and the republican cause among the people; and I have 
heard no doubt expressed as to the result of the electoral vote 
of the State. It is rumored, it is true, that the Legislature, at 
its adjourned session in May, threaten to district the State for 
the choice of electors, for the purpose of saving to the opposi- 
tion such portion of the vote as may be saved to them in that 
way. This, however, would be an act of desperation which I 
cannot persuade myself even that bank-bought Legislature will 
dare to do. Should they make the attempt, there is great proba- 
bility in my mind that such would be the revulsion produced upon 
the public feeling that they would lose many of the districts 
which are now tlieirs. Unless this is done I have no more doubt 
of the vote of that State than of our own, and that it will be 
given by a sweeping majoi'ity. 

"I see by the Argus, this morning, that the Genesee canal has 
passed the Assembly, and that the Black River has been ordered 
engrossed in the Senate, in addition to the $3,000,000 Erie rail- 
road appropriation pending in the Senate. What does all this 
mean ? It seems to me that the wildness of the Pennsylvania 
fever (for I will not believe that the Pennsylvania corruptions 
prevail at Albany) has taken possession of our Legislature also. 
They seem to look at millions, as sober, discreet men look at dol- 
lars, and to be willing to embark the credit of our State when 
the Pennsylvanians only gave bank charters with power to 
gamble in stocks. Who that knows anything of the matter 
30 



466 ^^^'^' ^^^'^ Tjmes of Silas Wright. 

believes that road will ever be made as a condition precedent to 
the obtaining the 83,000,000 of State credit ? Who does not 
know that this law, if passed, will only be used to raise that 
stock, and to lay the foundation for scenes in Wall street which 
will throw into the shade all former transactions of a stock- 
o-;imblino- character. And who does not see that when honest 
men have been cheated and ruined by the wire-workers in the 
stock market, they will come to the Legislature, sliow that the 
State was a direct party to the frauds, and demand, with a justice 
that would sustain a bill in equity, either that the State shall 
make the road or pay the $3,000,000 it has promised. And who 
does not see farther, who has any acquaintance with legislation 
upon subjects of this character, that the irresistible course will be 
to saddle the road upon the State, and compel an expenditure of 
from ten to twenty millions to save the three millions now 
promised, when the work to be constructed will not, for a century 
to come, if ever, keep itself in repair after it is well made. 

" Such, precisely, too, will be the character of the expenditures 
upon the Genesee and Black River canals, if made. The State 
will only have borrowed from four to six millions and expended 
it, to saddle it upon the treasury forever, and a treasury too which 
is now, and has been for years, living upon credit alone, two more 
paupers of a more expensive character than any pauper canals 
heretofore constructed and now constructing. 

" I cannot be mistaken, when I see the startling votes in botli 
Houses of our Legislature upon bills like these, as to the impelling 
power in the rear. Banks, new banks, and the enlargement of 
existing banks, must be that power. Are there not, then, eleven 
sound men in the Senate who will cut the gordian knot, and thus 
destroy the combination by which these monstrous projects are 
about to be forced upon tlie State ? Are there not forty-two 
sound men in the Assembly who will come forward and do the 
same thing ? Are we, at this crisis in the affairs of the country, 
to put ourselves by the side of Pennsylvania by lending the 
whole power of our State legislation to plunge our State in debt 
on the one hand, and to swell the false bubble of excessive credits 
and consequent excessive and unreal speculations on the other? 
I must say, I most deeply fear, if this Erie railroad bill shall pass, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 467 

tlie unjustifiable gambling it will jDi-oduce may throw into the 
shade, if it Joes not in fact justify, Pennsylvania in her course, as 
having given life to a corporation of somewhat greater capital, to 
be sure, but much more real and substantial in its character. 

" In connection with this subject I refer you, with the utmost 
gratification, to the high and patriotic example of the State of 
Ohio, and to the less clear but equally safe example of Virginia. 
I think the Argus should come out most distinctly with these 
worthy examjjles, and that every effort should be made by firm 
friends of the country, in and out of the Legislature, to concen- 
trate their strength against a lobby which otherwise may deluge 
the State with banks and with debt, each being the corrupt con- 
sequence of the other. 

" I have viewed the proceedings of our Legislature with the 
deepest interest on account of the State itself, and that interest 
has been greatly increased by the conviction that the eyes of the 
whole country are, at the present time, and from causes now not 
mentioned to you, turned upon our acts and our policy. The 
sincerity of our opposition to the Bank of the United States, and 
to the paper system, has been impeached by our opponents every- 
where, and doubted by honest friends in many quarters of the 
country. Nothing but the soundness of our policy, when pos- 
sessing the power of the State almost without a minority, can 
rebut these impeachments and dissipate these doubts. If, on the 
contrary, we fall into the snare which the bank has set for us by 
its unwise extensions and consequent promotion of the spirit of 
wild and dangerous speculation, we cannot expect to escape the 
catastrophe which must follow, nor can we expect the poor con- 
solation of arresting our very motives from the broadest suspicion. 

" I do hope you will urge these considerations upon our honest 
friends, and that they will joause before they take the fatal steps 
which seem to be threatened by the course of our Legislature. 

"All men here are looking forward to a sjjeedy and severe 
pressure upon the local banks, occasioned partly by the efforts 
making and to be made by Mr. Biddle & Co. to produce 
that state of things, and principally by the enormous extensions 
for speculations of every sort, and particularly in lands which 
cannot be converted into money to replace the capital thus 



468 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

invested. I entertain strongly the same apprehensions, and I do 
hope that our friends and our banks will be aware of the evil and 
guard themselves in time; and 1 more strongly hope that our Legis- 
lature, by its action, will neither increase the evil nor hasten the 
catastrophe. 

" I write in my seat and under an excited abolition debate, and 
cannot add more. Will you do me the favor to show this to Mr. 
Croswell, Mr. Flagg, Gen. Dix and the Governor, as I have let- 
ters from them all which ought to have been answered before 
this day, but which I cannot yet get time to answer. It will, at 
least, show them thit I do not forget my duty to them, if I do 
not do it. Remember me most kindly to your family. 

" Believe me, most truly yours, 

" SILAS WRIGHT, Jr. 

" Thomas M. Burt, Esq." 

"Senate Chamber, ) 

" Washington, Qth June, 1836. f 

" My Dear Brother and Sister. — Your letter of the twenty- 
ninth of May came to me this morning, and has confirmed, by the 
most melancholy result, our fears as to your young son. Our 
brother, S. D., by a letter under date of the twenty-fifth, informed 
us of his severe and dangerous illness, and we have watched every 
mail with the greatest anxiety to learn the result, striving, as poor 
short-sighted mortals in this world always do, to give ourselves 
hope. A single line from Luman, accidently opened before your 
letter vvas reached, gave us the melancholy result, and your 
letter to Clarissa gave the more distressing particulars. 

"What can I say to console you? I have never known the 
feelings of a parent, and cannot, therefore, from personal experi- 
ence, speak either of your attachments or your loss. I have, 
however, I hope, experienced the feelings of a friend, and as such 
can sympathize with the afilictions of a friend. As such I 
hope you will not doubt that I feel, as deeply as I am capable of 
feeling, your loss and your afiliction. The loss of a friend is 
severe, and tries strongly our feelings and our power of resigna- 
tion to the Supreme Ruler. The loss of a child must, to a 
parent, be much more trying, much more severe, much more 
painful to the heart. The loss of an only child, of all which 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 469 

calls forth and embodies the parental feeling, is perhaps as nearly 
an insupportable affliction as any which happens to us in our 
pilgrimage upon the earth, 

" Considering your sorrow, thus deep and aggravated, I thank 
you most sincerely for your letter, as an evidence of the most 
creditable, worthy and Christian-like resignation and fortitude 
under this heavy visitation. It is wisdom and duty so to disci- 
pline your feelings and to guard yourselves against desjjondency 
and permanent injury to your healths from unrestrained indulg- 
ence of grief, when the dear and loved object is beyond your 
reach for good or evil. Preserve the equanimity of feeling your 
letter so fully exhibits, and time will show you that you discharge 
an important duty to yourselves and to your many friends. I 
may seem cold in giving this advice. I do not feel so, and hope 
you may not think so. 

" Most unexpectedly to me, you had paid me the compliment 
of incorporating ray name with that of your darling boy. He 
has gone from us, and the name has ceased to exist in your fam- 
ily, but the kind remembrance to me is not the less valued and 
endeared to my feelings. That I can repay the kindness I do 
not hope; that I shall remember it I do believe. 

" Clarissa is very well, but most deeply afflicted, to day, by 
this news. She makes herself much more contented here than I 
expected she could, but has been quite anxious heretofore, and 
will be more anxious now, for our adjournment. I do not expect 
that we shall get away at an earlier day than the xourth of July, 
four weeks from this day, and I contidently hope we shall not be 
kept here to a later day. 

" We regret most deeply to hear that Julia's health is still bad. 
She has need of perfect healtli ; but you must entreat her, for your 
sake, for the sake of her many friends, not to let grief injure her 
present feeble health, but to take all pains to keep her mind as 
far at ease as is possible, that her health may be restored. 

" I write from my seat, under the hearing of an animated 

debate, and you must excuse all errors. In great haste, 

" Most affectionately yours, 

"SILAS WRIGHT, Jr. 
" Mr. Lucius Moody." 



470 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 



Chapter LIX. 

PUBLIC DEPOSITS. 

When Gen. Jackson, through Roger B. Taney, Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, du'ected that no further deposits of 
the public moneys shoukl be made in the United States 
Banlv, the selection of depositaries devolved upon the 
Treasury Department. Secretary Taney called to his 
assistance Amos Kendall, then Fourth Auditor of the 
Treasury, who made the necessary investigations con- 
cerning the banks desiring to receive these deposits. On 
his rej)ort, the selections were made to the satisfaction 
of all who were not advocates of the national bank. 
At the session of 1835-36 a bill was introduced in and 
passed the House of Representatives to regulate the 
selection of these deposit banks and the manner of their 
use. In the Senate this bill gave place to another, the 
thirteenth section of which directed that all the moneys 
in the treasury, on the 1 st day of January, 1837, over and 
above $5,000,000, should be deposited — distributed — to 
the several States in proportion to their representation in 
the Senate and House of Representatives. This distribution 
— for it was one in fact — was to be made in four equal 
installments on the first days of January, April, July and 
October of the year 1837. 

The bill finally passed the Senate on the 6th of June, 
1836, by a vote of 30 yeas and 9 nays. The latter were 
given by Messrs. Benton, King, of Georgia, Niles, Robin- 
son. Ruggles, Shepley, Wall, White and Wright. The 
bill passed the House on the twenty-second, by yeas 155 
to 38 nays ; among the latter was the author. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 471 

When this bill was bef(3re tlie Senate, Mr. Wright 
addressed the following remarks to that body : 

"Mr. Weight, iu offering his amendmeut, said he rejoiced that 
this interesting subject had at last come to its discussion before 
the Senate; and he rejoiced still more to see, as he thought he 
did see, a disposition upon all sides of the House to consider the 
bill witli a sincere desire to agree upon a law which should here- 
after regulate the deposits of the public moneys in the State 
banks. He would assure the Senate that he entered upon tlic 
discussion with the most earnest hope and intention that their 
deliberations miglit be brought to a successful termination, and 
that provisions might be agreed upon which would not only meet 
tlie assent of a large proportion of the Senators, but be satisfac- 
tory to the country, and quiet the complaints and remove the 
apprehensions which now surround the subject. 

" JNIr. W. said he ought further to inform the Senate, befoi-e he 
proceeded with the remarks he had to make, that no pride of 
authorship could attach to him in the amendment he had offered. 
The sections which related to the regulation of deposits, were 
the bill digested by the Committee of Ways and Means of the 
last House of Representatives, as he had been informed, and sup- 
posed to be true, witli the advice of the head of the Treasury 
Department, and was reported to that House, but not acted upon. 
He did not himself profess a sufficient acquaintance with the sub- 
ject to be able to frame a safe and proper bill, to regulate these 
deposits, which would accommodate the treasury, and at the 
same time be so far consistent with the interests of the banks 
as to induce tlieir assent to its provisions. He had not so 
minutely examined the provisions of these sections as to be able 
to pronounce the oi)inio]a that they were, in all respects, riglU in 
themselves, or preferable to others which might be suggested. 
The last two sections of the proposed amendment related to a 
subject distinct from the regulation of the deposits, and had been 
added in pursuance of recommendations made by the Secretary 
of the Treasury in liis last annual report to Congress. They 
were, therefore, propositions of the Secretary, for the temporary 
disposition of any aarplus which might remain in the treasury; 



472 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

and he had offered them to the Senate because they met much 
more perfectly his views than any other proj:)Ositions for the dis- 
position of that surplus which he had heard from any other quar- 
ter. He was not, therefore, the author of any portion of the 
amendment he had presented; and his action must not be con- 
sidered as influenced by any such relation to any of the provi- 
sions. He would go farther, and say that he was unconscious of 
feeling any peculiar attachment to any of the propositions he 
had presented, and would most cheerfully yield them and give 
his support to any others which he could convince himself were 
better suited to the objects all liad in view. 

" Among those objects it appeared to him that the security of 
the public treasure must stand first. He was not among those 
who entertained the least apprehension as to its entire security 
in its present condition, l)ut he was fully conscious, if further 
accumulations were to take place, that a change of that condi- 
tion would become indispensable. His confidence in the safety 
of the deposit banks, at the present time, was perfect; but he 
could not fail to see that, if the amounts in deposit went on 
increasing, a just apprehension might soon be entertained that 
the capital and means of the banks might not be adequate to 
their immense responsibilities. Some indulged this apprehension 
now, and he was desirous to adopt measures which should not 
only arrest its increase, but put an end to it for the future. 

" Anotlier leading object in any action upon this subject, Mr. 
W. said, must be the convenient use of the banks as the fiscal 
agents of the treasury. And here it should be borne constantly 
in mind that the Senate were attempting to legislate in reference 
to institutions not existing by the authority of Congress, not 
subject to the control or direction of Congress, and in no way to 
be affected by the action of Congress, in their character of fiscal 
agents, any further than their respective voluntary assents 
should bind them to such subjection, and thus connect their 
interests with the legislation of Congress. We were, in effect, 
Mr. W. said, merely making proposals to these institutions for 
a contract, in any law we might pass; and it therefore became 
us, while we performed scrupulously and rigidly our oflice and 
duty as guardians of the public treasui-e, so far to regard the 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 473 

interests to be consulted upon the other side as not to make our 
terms or proposals such as must meet the refusal of the banks, 
and thus deprive the treasury of their essential services. It was, 
in his judgment, the wisest protection of the public interests to 
offer to the deposit banks such terms as would make it their 
interest to discharge promptly, honestly and faithfully their duties 
to the treasury, and to keep carefully and safely the public moneys 
intrusted to them; and he could not consent to adopt any parsi- 
monious policy which would so tie down these banks as to com- 
pel them to make an unsafe and hazardous use of the moneys in 
deposit, to indemnify themselves against our exactions. Such a 
course would be to draw the most unsafe banks only into our 
service, and to excite them to a use of the public moneys danger- 
ous to the institutions and insecure to the public. 

"A third object, wliich should not be lost siglit of in the 
legislation under consideration, was a healthful condition of the 
monetary system of the country. Mr. W. said he ciould not, for 
a moment, doubt that the large accumulation of the public reve- 
nues in the banks had done much to promote the spirit of excessive 
speculation which, during the past year, had seemed to pervade 
every section of our vast country and every branch of enter- 
prise. The ten or eleven millions, beyond any former year, which 
had sought investment in the public lands, must, to a very great 
extent, have emanated from these reservoirs of surplus funds. 
The year was one of plenty and profusion in every department 
of trade and business ; and the capital of the banks, and in the 
banks, not required for tlie legitimate uses of commerce, must 
seek other employment. Hence, accommodations were liberal, 
and speculations ran wild; for, rely upon it, said Mr. W., those 
gentlemen are mistaken who have supposed, and have told us, 
that banks lock up the money intrusted to their keeping, and 
deprive the community of its use. Such is not the nature of 
these institutions. Such is not their interest ; and, as soulless 
existences, their interests are their only governing principle. 
The fault is here. They will not keep money in an unproductive 
state; and when the proper customers of banks, those who 
require loans for commercial purposes, when speedy returns are 
certain, do not apply for their means, they will loan them to 



474 Life and Times of jSilas Weight. 

those who are engaged in speculations; to those who, it is 
known, intend to a})ply the funds obtained to the purchase of 
property not convertible to cash at pleasure, but dependent upon 
casualties which render the use hazardous to the stability of 
banking facilities. The commercial community are, at this 
moment, experiencing a severe pressure for money. Is not the 
principal cause to be found here ? Were the millions which 
have been invested in speculations upon real estate, derived from 
bank accommodations, within the eighteen months last past, to 
be returned within the reach of legitimate commercial calls, 
does any one su^^pose the pressure at present existing would have 
been felt ? Does any one believe it would continue for one day ? 
In so far as the great accumulation of the moneys of the govern- 
ment in the deposit banks may have promoted this spirit of 
s])eculation and encouraged these loans, it is the imperative duty 
of Congress, when legislating upon the subject of the public 
deposits, to devise some mode of correcting the existing evil 
and of preventing its recurrence in future. In our iise of the 
State institutions as the fiscal agents of the treasury, we should, 
as far as maj^be in our power, so regulate that use as to promote, 
not to disturb, the great moneyed interests of the country, and 
the success and prosperity of commerce, which is our principal 
dependence for the revenues to be deposited. 

"With these j)reliminary remai-ks, Mr. W. said he would 
proceed to consider, very generally, the bill and amendment, and 
to point out some of the principal differences between the two 
proposed measures. He should not, at this time, enter into 
minute details, but should confine his remarks to those differ- 
ences which he thought highly essential. 

*'The fii-st he should notice was the liberty given to the 
Secretary of the Treasury, by the amendment, to select additional 
deposit banks. The provision, in terras, authorized an entire 
new selection under the law, as those now used had been selected 
when there was no law upon the subject ; but he was most happy 
to be able to say to the Senate that he was not aware, nor did 
he believe, there was the least intention or desire on the part of 
the Secretary, or of any one else, in the execution of this power, 
to dismiss a single one of the existing deposit banks. He did 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 475 

not know, or believe, that any bank now employed was consid- 
ered an unsafe depository of the public money, or had failed in 
any essential particular to perform its duties promptly and faith- 
fully as a fiscal agent of the treasury. He did believe, however, 
that if the public moneys were to remain in the banks, additional 
selections ought to be made at some of the more important points. 
As he was more particularly acquainted with the condition of tilings 
in the city of New York, he would confine his remarks to that 
point. Three banks of deposit had been selected, and were now 
employed in that city. Two of those banks were, by their char- 
ters, restricted as to their amount of loans; and his recollection 
was, that the utmost extent to which they could go was twice 
and a-half the amount of their capital stock. All the other 
banks in the city and State of New York, with very few excep- 
tions, were subject to the same restriction and limitation; and 
Mr. W. said he did not doubt tliat the third deposit bank, from 
the large amount of its capital, and the known discretion and 
safety of its directors, was practically subjected to the same lim- 
itation. Hence it would be ap[)arent to all tliat an amount of 
public deposit must frequently accumulate in these three banks, 
at that point, which, connected with the capital and means of the 
banks themselves, would constitute a fund far beyond the amount 
of loans they were at liberty to make. What, he should be asked, 
is done with this surplus ? Is it not locked up, without use to the 
banks or the community? He was ready, as he believed, to 
answer the inquiries, and to say that it is not locked up and kept 
from the use of that commercial community. When such a state 
of things is found to exist, those deposit banks suffer balances to 
remain to their credit in the neighboi'ing banks of the city, upon 
which those banks extend their loans. He could not say that there 
were permanent arrangements between the banks as to these bal- 
ances; but he believed he could say, with perfect safety, that 
they constantly existed to a greater or less extent, and that, in 
this indirect way, all the deposits at that point were made to con- 
stitute, as far as these deposits could properly be made to con- 
stitute, capital upon which accommodations were extended to the 
customers of the banks. 

" The system, however, Mr. W. said, was, in his judgment, 



476 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

very objectionable. These balances, suffered to remain in the 
banks not selected as deposit banks, were, from the necessity of 
the case, payable to the deposit banks upon demand, at their 
pleasure. It gave them, therefore, a command over the neigh- 
boring institutions, which should not exist but from an unavoid- 
able necessity. If we so arrange the disposition of the public 
moneys that more banks than those now selected must be 
employed to use them for the accommodation of the business 
community, there is no reason why each bank should not be made 
principal in its own use, and be responsible directly to the trea- 
sury, and not indirectly, through its neighboring and perhaps 
rival institutions. Mr. W". said it gave him great pleasure to say 
that he had never heard of a charge of unfairness, or an unne- 
cessary exertion of the power possessed by the deposit banks 
in the city of New York over their debtor banks; but there was 
something invidious in so limiting the number of the deposit banks 
there as to create the constant necessity of permitting part of 
the public moneys on deposit to remain in other banks, and be 
used by them, or to be taken from use, and locked up in the 
deposit banks. It added an unpleasant responsibility to the 
deposit banks, because, by the arrangement, they were compelled 
to be answerable, not only for their own use of the moneys 
intrusted to them, but for the use, by neighboring and rival 
institutions, of portions of those moneys; and it placed the 
neighboring and rival institutions, which would consent to take 
and use any part of these moneys, in the unpleasant position of 
agents to their rivals, and, so far, subject to their power and con- 
trol. This state of things, Mr. W. said, he believed ought not 
to exist ; and either that the amount of deposits in the banks 
ought to be reduced to a limit within their chartered powers of 
disposition, or that the number of deposit banks ought to be 
increased to an extent which would produce that consequence. 

" The bill introduced by the honorable Senator from South 
Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] confined the deposits to the existing 
deposit banks, and contained a positive prohibition against the 
selection of others, except at points where the public service might 
require it, and where there was now no such bank. Of conse- 
quence, the exception would not afford a remedy in the case he 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 477 

had described ; and he did not doubt that the situation of New 
York must be substantially that of Boston, Philadelj)hia, Balti- 
more, and many other similar points, Avhere the principal collec- 
tions of the revenue were made. For these reasons, he preferred 
the amendment he had offered to the original bill, so far as this 
difference was concerned. 

" The next difference he proposed to notice, Mr. W. said, was 
the omission, in the amendment, of any provision for the pay- 
ment of interest upon deijosits. This omission, so far as his 
action was concerned, had been made upon the assumption that 
some disposition, other than that of a deposit in the banks, would 
be made of any surplus of the moneys so deposited, beyond the 
contemplated expenses of the government. Should this not be 
so, and should the public moneys continue to accumulate in the 
banks, without appropriation and expenditure, he was clearly of 
the opinion that the banks ought to allow a reasonable interest 
for their use. He was, however, so unwilling to make an invest- 
ment of this description, because he held it so directly, if not 
compulsorily, an inducement to the banks to make a hazardous, 
if not improvident, use of the money in deposit with them, that 
he would not, in this stage of the proceeding, discuss the prin- 
ciple involved, or express an opinion as to any rate of interest 
which he might think it proper to exact. He yet entertained the 
strongest hope that the adoption by the Senate, of the propo- 
sition lie had made for the investment of any surplus which 
might be found to exist, would entirely supersede the necessity 
of action upon this proposition ; and he took it for granted, if 
his, or any other of the several propositions for taking the sur- 
plus from the banks, and placing it beyond their reach, should 
prevail, all would concede that the use of the moneys which 
would remain in deposit Avould be no more than an equivalent for 
the services required of the deposit banks, in their characters as 
fiscal agents of the treasury. If none of those propositions 
should meet the approval of the Senate, then he might be com- 
pelled to consider, practically, some mode of requiring the banks 
to pay an interest upon the deposits, and the rates of interest 
which should be charged. He would not, however, at present, 
anticipate the difficulties which would be found to arise from any 



478 LiF±: AND Times of Silas Wright. 

provision of this sort. A further consideration connected with 
th/s part of tlie subject, Mr. W. said, it became liis particular 
duty to bring to the notice of the Senate. He could not speak 
as to other States than the one he had the lionor in part to repre- 
sent here ; but the banks of his State, as he liad before remarked, 
were limited in the amounts they were permitted to loan ; and in 
the city of New York, it happened, as he was informed and 
believed, and would hereafter often happen, that the amount of 
public deposits in the deposit banks there, vv^ould be greater, 
when added to the capital and means of those banks, than they 
could use by way of loans. Under the present arrangement, he 
had described the mode in which the surplus of such deposits 
was made useful and available to the mercantile community. 
The system pursued, on the part of the deposit banks, of letting 
balances stand to their credit in the neighboring institutions, 
upon which they could make loans, reached this great and useful 
object ; and the fact that these balances were permitted to 
remain without interest, enabled the banks thus accommodated to 
extend to their customers nearlj^ the same liberality which could 
be extended by the deposit banks, were they permitted to dis- 
count upon the same funds. But if interest was to be demanded 
of the deposit banks, it was certain that they could not afford to 
suffer these balances to remain Avith rival institutions, without 
interest. They could not afford to pay interest upon funds, and 
give the gratuitous use of them to their neighbors. 

" Interest, Mr, W. said, was the governing principle of a bank, 
and no bank would consent to pay interest and not receive inte- 
rest ; much less to pay interest for the benefit of a rival bank. 
The deposit banks, therefore, will not pay interest to the govern- 
ment upon the public deposits, and suffer portions of the moneys 
in deposit with them to remain, in the shape of balances, in 
neighboring institutions, without interest. Can they, then, Mr. 
President, said Mr. W., jiermit them to remain upon the pay- 
ment of interest ? No, sir ; I think they cannot. Balances 
suffered to remain, under a stipulation to pay interest, would be 
loans in effect, and loans within the meaning and intent of the 
charters of the banks which should enter into such a stipulation 
by way of addition to the direct loans they are permitted to 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 479 

make. These deposit banks will be sure to use directly so much 
of the moneys intrusted to their care as they are permitted by 
their charters to use, and should more be deposited, it is impos- 
sible they could pay an interest upon it, and not use it ; it is 
certain they would not pay an interest upon it, and permit others 
to use it without interest; it is shown that they could not lend it to 
others upon interest, to be used as the basis for loans ; and therefore 
they could not consent to receive in deposit a greater sum than 
they could use under the powers granted in their own charters. 
" Here, Mr. W. said, he thought he had a conclusive argument 
to prove, either that an interest upon the deposits ought not to 
be charged, or that the number of deposit banks in the city of 
New York ought to be so increased that each bank could use, by 
way of loans, all the money it should be required to take upon 
deposit. He did not oppose the plan of charging the banks with 
an interest upon the deposits, in case amounts of money, beyond 
the current demands upon the treasury, were to remain witli 
them; but if this policy was to become the law of the land, he 
desired that it might be practically applied, so that the institu- 
tions and the treasury might be able to act together, in adopting 
it. This, he was sure, could not be done, without the selection 
of additional deposit banks at some of the important points. He 
had stated the operation at New York, and he did not doubt that 
the same consequences, to a greater or less extent, would be 
operative at several of the other important points, where the 
collections of tlie public revenue were large. He must here 
again remind the Senate that we were legislating in reference to 
institutions not subject to our legislation, and which were to be 
made subject to it l)y their own voluntary consent ; by a free, 
and full, and fair contract, or not at all. It therefore became us 
to offer to them terms which they could accept, and not so to 
economize our own interests as to deprive us of the aids, iraijor- 
tant, if not indispensable, of those fiscal agents of our treasury. 
For these reasons he preferred the amendment to the original 
bill, because it gave to the Secretary of the Treasury the power 
to select additional deposit banks — an exercise of which power 
would be indispensable, in case the principle of charging interest 
upon the deposits should be made a feature of the deposit bill. 



480 X/i*'^ AND Times of Silas Wright. 

"The only other principal difference between the bill and 
amendment, Mr. W. said, which he proposed to notice, was, the 
different propositions for the temporary disposition of any sur- 
plus of revenue which might, from time to time, be found in the 
treasury. The bill offered by the honorable Senator from South 
Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] proposed to deposit it with the States, 
without interest, upon a mere statute pledge of repayment of the 
principal when Congress should call for it. The amendment 
offered by himself proposed simply to invest it in the stocks and 
securities issued by some one of the States of this Union, bear- 
ing a fair interest, transferable at the pleasure of the holder, and 
to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury, or the Commissioners 
of the Sinking Fund, at any time, when the wants of the 
national treasury should require it, to sell the stock so pur- 
chased at its market value. 

" Mr. W. said it would be the purpose of his remaining remarks 
to examine these different propositions, and assign the reasons for 
his preference for the one he had submitted. 

" The proposition he had offered, equally Avith that of the 
honorable Senator [Mr. Calhoun], rested ujjon the responsibility 
of the States; and the investments were, by the terms of it, to 
be confined to the stocks, or other securities, issued by a State, 
and carrying upon its face a pledge of the faith and credit of the 
State for the punctual payments of interest and the final redemp- 
tion of the principal. It possessed an important advantage over 
the proposition of the Senator, in commanding, for the money 
paid, an actual and transferable security — a security which might 
be converted into money at pleasure, without any agency or 
interference on the part of the State. It also secured a fair 
interest for the use of the money, while it should remain invested; 
and in this respect seemed to him to be decidedly preferable to 
the proposition of the Senator. 

" The Senator proposed to loan the money to the States, with- 
out interest, until wanted for the uses of the public treasury, 
and actually called for upon a given notice (and that, too, with- 
out any security possessed by the government, w^hich it could use), 
independently of the action of the States, His only security 
was a legislative pledge, which was worth nothing until made so 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 481 

by the further positive action of the State Legislatures. It might, 
or it might not, be convenient for them to respond to the call of 
Congress for this money ; and all would admit that their pleasure 
must determine the question whether or not the money should bo 
repaid, as none would contend that any power existed in Con- 
gress, or in any department of this government, to coerce the 
fulfillment of this legislative promise to pay. 

" But by whom, Mr. W, said he would ask, was this call to be 
made upon the States? By Congress; in other words, by the 
representatives of the States here, and by the representatives of 
the people of the States in the other branch of Congress. The 
States w^ere to be made the debtors, and their will, expressed by 
their representatives in Congress, was to determine Avhether their 
respective debts should be paid, and wlien and how that payment 
should be made. This was the financial policy of the proposi- 
tion of the honorable Senator, This was the security to the 
national treasury to be offered for the almost countless millions 
which the imagination of the Senator had accumulated there, to 
be transferred to the several State treasuries. 

"Mr. W. said, he here met an objection, which he nuist 
examine in a manner he hoped would be satisfactory to all who 
would honor him with their attention. He alluded to the objec- 
tion tliat the mode of investment he had proposed would intro- 
duce into the financial operations of the country an extensive 
system of ' stock-jobbing;' Avould make the government itself 
a ' stock-jobber,' and would confound its fiscal agents with the 
' bulls and bears of the stock market.' 

" The objection, Mr. W. said, was most seriously urged, and, 
therefore, deserved a careful examination. He hoped to be able to 
give that examination in a manner so simple, clear and intelligible 
that friends and opponents of the propositions would be entirely 
satisfied that its rejection must rest upon stronger ground thin 
could be found in this cabalistic scarecrow. In what securities did 
he propose to make the investments ? In securities resting upon 
the faith and credit of some one of the States of this Union. Were 
securities of that character the subject of stock gambling ? Would 
any Senator rise in his place and say that the stocks or other 
securities issued by his State, and dependent upon its faith for their 
31 



482 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

filial redemption, were food for ' the bulls and bears of the stock 
market ?' Would any one contend that securities of this charac- 
ter were to be classed with the gambling stocks of the day ? 
"Would it be urged that the rise and depression of these stocks 
in the market for the last ten years had furnished the least indi- 
cation that they were affected by the movements of those who 
had been termed ' the bulls and bears of the stock market ?' He 
was sure he might give a negative to "all these inquiries without 
contradiction here ; and if so, he must be permitted to say he 
considered the ' stock-jobbing ' objection most conclusively 
answered. 

•' He would ask, however, what were gambling stocks in prac- 
tice ? Were they securities, like the State stocks, defined and 
certain in every element which could constitute value ? Were 
they certificates, or bonds, for a given amount of principal, pay- 
able at a given day and at a specified place ; with a given rate of 
interest for the forbearance of j)ayment, also payable quarterly, 
half-yearly, or yearly, at a given place named upon the face of 
the security? Could stocks or securities of this character become 
the subject of gambling in the stock market for any other cause 
than a doubt as to the payments of interest and principal ? And 
was any one prepared to say that the faith of any State of the 
Union, thus pledged, was matter of doubt or uncertainty in the 
reiiiutesL degree ? He thought not. Where, then, was the room 
for apprehension as to stock-jobbing? The amount of principal 
secured by the stock was liquidated and certain ; the day of pay- 
ment was particularly specified; the rate of interest was fixed, 
and the place for the payments of interest and principal was 
defined. Where, he would again ask, was there room for gam- 
bling; for stock-jobbing; for the interference of the 'bulls and 
bears' in investments of this character? There was none ; and 
the history of these stocks and securities in the market would 
show that they were entirely exempt from influences of the dis- 
ruption indicated by the objection. 

" These stocks would experience fluctuations in the market, 
but they were not the fluctuations produced by stock gambling. 
When money was plenty, and the legitimate calls of business did 
not require all the means at the command of capitalists and 



Life and Tuies of Silas Weight. 483 

money-dealers, investments would be sought in these safe stocks, 
and they would rise in value. When, on the contrary, money 
was scarce, and capital could be safely invested at a much more 
advantao-eous rate than the usually low interest paid upon these 
stocks, the stocks would seek a market for a change of invest- 
ment, and the consequence would usually be a depression of price. 
These, and these alone, were the causes of fluctuation in the price 
of the State stocks; and who could suppose that these causes 
would produce fluctuations so great as to deserve the appellation 
of 'stock-jobbing,' 'stock gambling,' 'an association with the 
bulls and bears of the stock market ?' 

"What, Mr. W. said he would again ask, were gambling 
stocks ? They were stocks dependent upon future and uncertain 
results. They were stocks as to the value of which the judgment 
and the imagination were the guides of the purchaser. A bank 
is chartered, a railroad company is incorporated, or a canal is 
authorized to be constructed; a stock is created, and becomes 
the subject of purchase and sale in the market; but there is no 
bank, no railroad, no canal, in actual operation. The value of 
the stock is matter of calculation, conjecture, imagination. There 
are no dividends, and therefore the rate of dividend is unknown; 
and estimate, calculation, judgment or imagination, excitement, 
enthusiasm, as the case may be, direct the standard of value of 
the stocks, and govern the sales. These are the stocks which 
give rise to stock-jobbing; these are the gambling stocks; these 
are the stocks upon which ' the bulls and bears of the stock 
market' act; these are what have been denominated 'the fancy 
stocks ' of Wall and Chestnut streets, and the other great stock 
markets of the country. Would any Senator, or any citizen of 
intelligence and observation, attempt to class these stocks witli 
the certain and specified securities issued by the independent 
States of this IJnion, and guaranteed by their faith and credit ? 
He was certain he might answer, no; and that answer must put 
at rest forever this frightful ' stock-jobbing ' objection. 

"Another advantage, Mr. W. said, to be derived from the 
propositions he had submitted, and which ought to commend 
them to the favor of some portion of the Senate, was that they 
were antagonistic to no measure of appropriation or distribution 



484 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

wliic'h liad been or wliich could be presented to Congress. If 
adopted, tliey would merely act upon any surplus moneys which 
mi'dit, from time to time, be in deposit ; they would, at all times, 
regulate the amount of money in the banks, and prevent the mis- 
chiefs experienced and apprehended from an overaccumulation 
of funds there; they would remedy the evil which constituted 
the principal subject of present complaint, and would, at the 
same time, preserve the funds within the entire control of the 
treasury, in a shape to be converted into money whenever appro- 
priations made by Congress should require their use. 

" It was objected that there would be a want of these stocks 
to absorb the millions which the condition of the treasury would 
present for investment under the terms of the propositions. His 
answer to this objection was double. In the first place he could 
assure the gentleman who urged it, and the country, that the 
vivid and fruitful anticipations of the financiers who had pre- 
dicted upon the amounts of surplus revenue, would be sadly 
and greatly disappointed. If Congress performed its duty, dur- 
ing its present session, and made such provision for the immedi- 
ate and permanent defenses of the country as its condition and 
wants imperiously demanded, the amount of our surplus money 
Avould not be such as to alarm the statesman and patriot, or to 
compel the fiscal ofticers of the government to go abroad for 
stocks in which they could invest it. There might be a small 
surplus ; Init he thought it would mostly consist of unexpended 
balances of outstanding appropriations. Existing in this shape, 
it might be found wise to make temporary investments in the 
manner proposed, but not in amounts which would exceed the 
amounts of State stocks in the market. In the second place, the 
present amount of those securities, existing in the shape of stocks 
or bonds, must be some fifty or sixty millions of dollars ; and it 
was a fact, known to all who had paid the least attention to the 
legislation of the States for the past year, that a very large pro- 
portion of them were authorizing further loans, and the issue of 
new stocks or securities, to enable them to prosecute additional 
works of internal improvement. He did not propose to be spe- 
cific in any statement ui)on this point, but he would refer to the 
State he had the liouor in part to represent, to Pennsylvania, Ohio, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 485 

Maryland, Louisiana, and many others, as having outstanding 
securities in considerable amounts; and the same States, Avith 
perhaps the exception of Ohio, together with Indiana, Illinois, 
Tennessee, Mississippi, and he believed several other States, had, 
at the last sessions of their respective Legislatures, authorized 
heavy additions to their State debts. How, then, could gentle- 
men entertain apprehensions that there would be a want of State 
stocks in which to make these investments '? Even should the 
amounts to be invested far exceed their most flattering calcula- 
tions, the amount of these stocks would much more than equal 
the sum total of surplus ; and he hoped to quiet their apprehen- 
sions for the future bv the confident assurance, which the history 
of the times would fully warrant, that, unless a radical change 
in the policy of the States should be produced, the increase of 
State loans, and consequently of State stocks and other State 
securities, would far outstrip the accumulations of surplus revenue 
in the national treasury, 

" But another formidable objection had presented itself to the 
minds of some, in the supposition that any attempt on the part 
of this government to invest the surplus moneys of the treasury 
in these stocks would at once raise the price of stocks in the 
market to an extent so extravagant as to make the investments 
matter of important loss. He would beg gentlemen, who urged 
this objection, to remember against what description of invest- 
ments they were using the argument. Take an example : You 
propose to purchase a five per cent stock of one of the States, 
upon which the interest is payable quarter-yeai'ly, and the prin- 
*cipal redeemable at the expiration of twenty years. The only 
consideration which can make such a stock par in this country, 
where money is almost always worth more than five per cent for 
ordinary uses, is that of perfect security, and perfect punctuality 
in the payments of interest and pi'incipal. If you pay a premium 
upon such a stock, and retain it until the principal become due, 
the premium paid is so much deducted in advance from the accru- 
ing interests, while, if the stock be not retained for the whole, 
but a portion only, of the time it has to run, its market value is 
diminishing in precise proportion to the lapse of time; and, of 
course, the prospect of recovering the premium paid, by a resale, 



486 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

diminishes constantly. All these are matters of precise and per- 
fect calculations; and if every doubt as to the prompt and 
punctual payments of interest and principal be removed, as in 
reference to State stocks and securities they might be supposed 
to be, they were all the elements, Mr. W. said, which entered 
into the value of the given stock. How much premium, then, he 
would ask, could be paid ? Five per cent premium would be the 
whole interest for one year, or the twentieth part of all the inter- 
est to be paid upon the stock; and this ratio would exhibit the 
effect upon the interest of the purchase at any rate of premium. 
How was it po&sible, then, that these stocks could experience 
great fluctuations beyond those occasioned by the diflerent value 
of money at different periods? They could not; and their his- 
tory in the market, as he had previously had occasion to notice, 
had proved that they had not fluctuated materially after public 
confidence had become established in their entire security as 
investments. Indeed, he could go further, and say that the State 
stocks had experienced no extensive fluctuations at any period; 
but, on the contrary, their usual history had been a gradual rise, 
within certain limits, regulated by the value of money and the 
desire for permanent investments, in proportion as the stocks 
became known and their perfect safety ascertained. 

" Some gentlemen, Mr. W. said, seemed to suppose that the 
fact that the government was to become a purchaser, would, of 
necessity, affect the pi-ice of these stocks in the market. This he 
did not believe. He had had some experience in transactions of 
this sort, while in charge of an important fiscal oflice in his own 
State, and acting for the State; and that experience had taught 
him to believe that a public ofiicer, acting with discretion, 
could purchase stocks of this character upon as favorable terms 
as any other individual. If the officer were to give public 
notice, in advance, that, upon a given day, he would present 
himself in the market and purchase a given amount of specified 
stock, he would, most undoubtedly, have the price of that stock 
raised upon him, and would either defeat his intended purchase 
altogether, or compel himself to pay an exorbitant price. So 
with the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, under the provisions 
of this act ; but did any one suppose those officers would take 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 487 

that course in making the investments they are required to 
make ? No, Mr. President ; no officers or agents of intelligence 
and integrity will thus discharge such a trust. They will first 
ascertain, at the times specified, the amount of money to be 
invested, and will then give their instructions to trustworthy 
and confidential agents, stock-brokers or others, at the points 
where the desired stocks are to be found, to make the necessary 
purchases for them. Their agents go into the market as other 
private individuals go there; not proclaiming themselves as the 
representatives of the United States, but as purchasers of State 
stocks for investment, and proffering the money, at the market 
value, to those who wish to sell. Their purchases, like all others, 
will be regulated by the relative value of money, and of the 
stocks purchased; and, so far from the price being affected by 
the circumstance that the government is in fact the purchaser, 
the seller may never know that fact. He makes his transfer to 
the nominal purchaser, and that purchaser to the United States ; 
and it is only by following the transfers upon the books kept in 
the transfer office, that it will become known that the govern- 
ment has purchased the stocks. This fact may not be made 
known until the investments are completed, and the purchases 
for the government have closed. So with the sales, when the 
government may find it necessary to sell ; and no apprehension, 
therefore, can be justly entertained by reason of the connection 
of the public treasury with these operations. 

" Mr. W. said it was undoubtedly true, in case large amounts 
were to be invested at one time, that an appreciation of the 
stocks might be the consequence. It was a law of trade, of uni- 
versal application, that an unusual demand for any article in the 
market had a tendency to raise the price of that article in a ratio 
governed by the demand and supply; and, in reference to the 
investments provided for, this rule would operate in the same 
manner that it would upon mercantile, or any other transactions 
of trade. As, however, he had shown (he hoped satisfactorily 
to the Senate) that the amounts to be invested, as surplus beyond 
the appropriations made by Congress, could not be large, and 
that the amount of stocks in the market, of the description to 
which the investments were confined, was ample at present, and 



488 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

would increase much more rapidly than any possible increase of 
our surplus revenues, he thought he had answered the last two 
objections named, so effectually as to prevent their repetition. 

" Another objection had been made to the propositions he had 
submitted, of a ])crsonal character. It had been said that the 
Commissioners of the Sinking Fund were not the persons to Avhom 
the trust of making these investments ought to be conlided. 
Mr. W. said he had named these commissioners, not because he 
had any especial preference for those particular officers, as the 
trustees of the treasury, upon this particular occasion. Indeed, 
he did not know that he could tell who the commissioners were 
at the present moment; but he believed the Vice-President, the 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Secretaries of State 
and of the Treasury, and the Attorney-General, were of the 
number, if not the whole board. He must be permitted to 
say he had full and entire confidence in the individuals who 
now held these important offices, and, for himself, he would 
most cheerfully confide to their intelligence and integrity any 
trust, pecuniary or political ; but he had designated the Com- 
missioners of the Sinking Fund for the reason that our fathers 
had designated those high officers, whoever the individuals might 
chance to be, to discharge much more important duties in refer- 
ence to the great and vital interests of the treasury — the pay- 
ment of the national debt, and not from any personal or political 
attachment to the gentlemen who now filled the places. If 
objection was to be seriously made on account of this feature of 
the ])ropositions, and any Senator would name other public officers, 
whose duties would permit the requisite attention to the trust, 
and who could be less exceptionably charged with it, he would 
most cheerfully consent to the change. He was sure he did not 
mistake the feelings of any one of the officers he had named, 
when he said he could not render to them a more acceptable ser- 
vice than by discharging them from the unpleasant responsibili- 
ties which a faithful execution of the proposed trust might 
impose. He had been unable, however, after the most mature 
reflection upon the subject, to change the selection of trustees, 
and must, therefore, wait to hear the suggestions of those who 
found objection in this part of his propositions. He had heard 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 489 

the objections with patience, and he would endeavor to receive 
and consider any amendments with imi)artiality and candor. 

" Mr. W. said wlien lie had originally offered the sections of 
the bill upon which he was now remarking, seven millions of dol- 
lars was named as the sum to be left in the treasury to meet tlu' 
disbursements of each quarter. Before lie commenced his present 
observations, he had moditied the proposition by striking out the 
word ' seven,' and thus leaving the sum blank. He had done 
this because he wished the vote might indicate the sense of the 
Senate upon the principle contained in the section, without involv- 
ing objections of detail, which, it was most manifest, the fixing 
of this sum would involve. Tlie counter-proposition already 
offered by the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CalhounJ, Avith 
a much less sum (three millions) inserted, afforded conclusive evi- 
dence of a wide difference of opinion upon this point, and proved 
satisfactorily to his mind that the question between the two 
propositions ought to be presented to the Senate without refer- 
ence to this amount : that the principle of each might be disem- 
barrassed from this mere difference of opinion as to the amount 
to be left in the treasury, whether the one proposition or tlie 
other should be adopted. He thanked the honorable Senator for 
his agreement with him in this opinion, and for having modified 
his propositions in conformity with it, by leaving the sum blank 
in them also. Indeed, Mr. W. said, the fixing of this sum, in any 
event, ought to be the act of the Senate, and not of any mem- 
ber of the Senate who might choose to submit propositions as to 
the disposition of any surplus revenue whicli might be found iu 
the treasury. This position would be sound, under any circum- 
stances; and more especially so at this time, when appropriations 
to a greater extent than usual were not only proposed to be made, 
but conceded on all liands to be proper, and when, therefore, the 
amount to be retained for the uses of each quarter would be, to 
an unusual extent, dependent upon tlie appropriations actually 
made. 

"There was, however, Mr. W. said, a manifest difference as 
to the sum Avhich ought to supply the blank in the section he 
had offered from that which had ])een offered by the Senator 
from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun], because the rule of action 



490 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

of the two propositions upon the funds in the ti-easury was 
wholly different. That offered by him directed the Commission- 
ers of the Sinking Fund, at the commencement of each quarter 
of the year, to estimate not only the payments, but the receipts 
for the coming quarter; and from that estimate to determine 
the average of moneys to be found in the treasury for the quar- 
ter, and to invest all, above the amount which was to fill the 
blank in question, in the manner pointed out in the provisions. 
Tiie antagonistic propositions of the Senator provided for annual 
distributions, leaving in the treasury, regardless of futui'e receipts, 
a specified amount to meet outstanding appropriations. 

" The rule of calculation was, therefore, entirely different, and 
the blank in each should be filled with reference to that rule. In 
the former case, the calculation was to be made at the commence- 
ment of the quarter, and the receipts as well as the expenditures 
of the quarter were to be brought into the estimate; while, in 
the latter case, a gross sum was to be left in the treasury, at the 
commencement of each year, which, together with the receipts 
of the year not estimated, was to constitute its means for the 
coming year. In the one case, the blank should be filled by a 
sum which would meet the entire payments of the quarter; while, 
in the other, it should be such a sum as, when added to the 
whole receipts of the future year, would meet the whole pay- 
ments of that year. It was, therefore, most appai-ent that, in 
acting upon the different principles proposed, this sum should be 
left blank, and that the blank should be filled with reference to 
the proposition adopted. It was equally apparent to his mind, 
Mr. W. said, that the sum to be inserted in either case must 
depend mainly upon the appropriations made, and to be made, 
by Congress, during its present session. The quarterly payments 
must surely depend upon that legislation; and the question 
whether the receipts of the next year will be equal to the expend- 
itures of that year must also depend, in a great degree, upon the 
amount of outstanding appropriations at the close of this year. 
The appropriation bills for the present year are very late. Few 
of them have yet passed and become laws, although the one-half 
of the year has nearly expired. If, then, they be greater than 
usual, there is the more reason to expect that the amount of 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 49 J. 

outstanding appropriations, at the close of the year, will be 
unusually large. This amount, whatever it may be, is to be 
added to the current calls upon the treasury of the next year ; 
and, therefoi-e, in fixing upon a sum to be left in the treasury on 
the first day of the year, the amount of outstanding appropria- 
tions should be especially regarded. 

" In this view of the subject, Mr. W. said he had no hesita- 
tion in saying that the blank in the propositions of the Senator 
from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] could only be filled safely by 
deduction of the outstanding appropriations, separate from the 
sum which it might be necessary to retain in the treasury at the 
commencement of each year, to render it safe against all current 
calls. In reference to the propositions he had submitted, entirely 
difterent considerations might govern our legislation. In the 
first place, an estimate was to be made of the receipts and expend- 
itures of each quarter, and the sum to be invested was to be 
regulated by that estimate, by deducting from the moneys in the 
treasury, and the estimated receipts for the quarter, the estimated 
payments for the same quarter. That estimate, however, might 
be erroneous upon the one side or the other; but the consequence 
of error, in either case, could not be materially injurious to the 
public interests. If the estimate should be too favorable to the 
treasury, the only consequence would be that the amount of the 
error would remain in the treasury uninvested during the quarter. 
If, on the other hand, the estimate should be too sliort, and leave 
the treasury without means, the propositions not only authorize, 
but direct, the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund immediately to 
sell so much of the stocks in which the investments have been 
made as may be necessary to supply the treasury with means 
equal to its wants. At no time, under these propositions, are the 
means placed beyond the reach and control of the fiscal affairs of 
this government, or in a situation in which they cannot be com- 
manded by the action of the officers and agents of this govern- 
ment, to supply the wants of the national treasury. The filling 
of the blank, therefore, in this section, is much less important 
than in that offered by the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. 
Calhoun]. In this case, the propositions, of themselves, provide 
a correction for any error wliich may arise. In the other case, 



492 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

the money is placed in the keeping of the States ; is put beyond 
the reach of this government or its officers, upon the mere secu- 
rity of a legislative pledge for the repayment of the principal, 
without interest ; and cannot be reclaimed, whatever may be the 
wants of the national treasury, but upon the voluntary, separate, 
and independent action of the Legislatures of all those States 
Avhich shall receive their respective dividends. Hence, the far 
greater importance that the Senate should direct in this matter ; 
and that these blanks, and especially that in the proposition of 
tlie Senator, should be filled with great caution, and with partic- 
ular reference not only to the outstanding appropriations, but to 
such future appropriations as any measures of national policy 
now to be adopted may require. He had felt it to be his duty, 
Mr. W. said, to throw out these suggestions ; and he would 
content himself with their expression, until some specific motion 
to fill the blank in the one or the other proposition should bring 
the question more directly before the Senate. 

" Mr. W. said he had two insuperable objections to prefer 
against the propositions offered by the Senator from South Caro- 
lina [Mr. Calhoun] for a disposition of the surplus revenue. 
Tlie first was, that he considered tlieni, in substance and in effect, 
propositions to make a general distribution to the States of all 
the revenues in the national treasury, from whatever source 
derived, and, in that sense, to embrace the adoption of a prin- 
ciple wliich he considered more dangerous to our civil institutions, 
State and national, than any other which could be presented for 
the sanction of Congress. The taxing powers of this government 
were to be used to accumulate money for distribution to the 
sovereign and independent States of the confederacy. Those 
States were to be taught to look to this government for the means 
to supply their wants; for the money to sustain their institutions; 
for the funds to meet their legislative appropriations. Can rela- 
tions of this sort be established, and the independence of the 
States be preserved ? Can the government of a State feel or 
exercise an independence of the power which feeds and sustains 
it by direct and gratuitous contributions from its treasury ? 
Wliat step can be so eminently calculated as this to produce 
speedy and perfect consolidation ? 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 493 

"Mr. W. said he knew he should ho answered that it was not 
proposed to give, but to loan, tliis money to the States; to take 
their bonds or securities for its repayment, upon the call of Con- 
o-ress. It would b^ further said that the omission to charge 
interest was a matter of entire discretion with Congress and of 
justice to the States, inasmuch as the money had been collected 
from the people of the States, and, if not wanted for the uses of 
this government, ought to be submitted to the States for their 
use, without charge. These were specious answers, to which the 
form of the projiositions gave countenance; but what would be 
their practical eftect ? The money was to go to the States upon a 
rule of distribution prescribed, and claimed to be equal and just; 
it was to go to them for any uses they may choose to make of it, and 
without interest. In return for the money, the several State Legis- 
latures are to pass laws declaring that the State will repay the prin- 
cipal when Congress shall, by law, call for the payment. Does 
any one believe that the national treasury will ever receive back 
one dollar of the money distributed upon these terms ? What is 
the course ? The immediate relation of debtor and creditor is 
established between each of the States and the federal govern- 
ment, and the power to demand payment is left Avith the repre- 
sentatives of the States, and of the people of the States, in the 
two Houses of Congress; while the response to that demand 
rests with the States themselves, acting through their respective 
Legislatures, or otherwise, as tliey shall choose. The treasury 
is in want. Will the States, through their agents here, make a 
demand upon tliemselves to supply that want? Never, Mr. 
President. They may, through that channel, call for increased 
distributions, but never for the repayment of moneys which have 
been distributed and expended. 

"It must not be alleged, Mr. W. said, that, in making these 
remarks, he expressed distrust of the patriotism or faith of the 
States. No man entertained more confidence in both than him- 
self ; but the government of the States was the government of 
the people of the States, and the people of the States composed 
the vast, sagacious, enterprising business community, which all 
here in common represent, and of whose interests they, as an 
aggregate number, are quite as perfect judges as their represen- 



494 Life and Times of Silas Wuiuht. 

tatives anywhere. He should never express a doubt of their 
faith or patriotism ; nor did he doul)t that they woukl, at all 
times, and for all proper purposes, keep the national treasury 
fully and richly supplied. If, however, want should come upon 
that treasury, the manner of answering that want would be before 
the people, and subject to their interests and their will. If an 
increase of the duties upon imports, an increase of indirect taxa 
tion, shall be more acceptable to the majority than a call upon 
the States for the momey now proposed to be intrusted to them, 
that mode of sujoplying the treasury will, of course, be adopted. 
Which — he would ask every Senator to answer to himself in can- 
dor and sincerity — which would be the most probable resort ? 
In case of a call upon the States, all would be equally interested, 
and all would be likely to resist. Such a call, if the rule of dis- 
tribution should be a proper and constitutional rule, would be, 
in effect, precisely equivalent to laying a direct tax to the amount, 
and the interests of no State or section of the country could, in 
any event, be promoted by it; but an increase of the duties upon 
foreign importations, and the consequent increase of the revenue 
from customs, a large majority of the people of the whole Union, 
as experience has shown, may easily be made to believe, if the 
fact be not so, that their interests will be directly and essentially 
promoted. Who, then, can doubt that this mode, instead of a 
call upon the States for the money parceled out to them, will 
be the mode of supplying any future wants of the treasury, so 
long as a resort to this indirect taxation can reach that object? 
If a calamitous and expensive war shall come ujDon the nation, 
and our commerce shall be so far interrupted or destroyed as to 
render any rates of duty upon imports an inadequate supply to 
the treasury, then, indeed, Mr. W. said, this money might be 
called for ; because then no other resort but to such a call, or to 
a direct tax, would remain to Congress. Still an important 
and most delicate question would, even then, be likely to govern 
the action of the national Legislature. Each State would calcu- 
late the relative effect upon itself of a call for the money, or a 
direct tax to raise the same amount. The interests of the 
States whose population shall have relatively diminished between 
the time of the receipt of the money and the time when a call 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 495 

shall be proposed will (lictate to it, aiitl to its representatives 
here to favor a direct tax in preference to a call ; because 
its proportion of the tax mil be less than was its proportion 
of the money, distributed when its relative })osition among 
the States was higher. On the contrary, the relatively increas- 
ing States, those whose population shall bear a higher pro- 
portion to the whole when the call comes than when the dis- 
tribution took place, will favor a call instead of a tax, because 
the proportion of money falling to their share will have been 
less than their proportion of the tax when they shall have 
become relatively more populous. The preponderance of these 
interests will, of course, determine the action of Congress when 
tlie crisis shall have arrived. 

" If this view of the subject be sound and practical, will any 
one contend that the disposition of the surplus, according to 
these propositions, is, in effect, anything less than a general 
and unrestricted distribution of it to the States ? The repay- 
ment submitted to their action, and is subject to their pleasure ; 
and all the constitutional means for a supply of money to tht- 
treasury, sepax-ate from a call for this money, will be con- 
stantly as open to them and to their representatives here as 
they now are, and will remain, if this distribution be not made. 
Is, then, the position sound, that Congress will never make the 
call until a necessity either of levying a direct tax, or of making- 
it, shall exist ? And if it be, is the position of the general gov- 
ernment made in any respect better, by having required the 
pi-omise of payment as a condition precedent to dividing out the 
moneys of the treasury to the States ? Mr. W. said he could 
not see that it was; while he could see the most fearful evils 
which mio-ht arise from this debtor and creditor relation between 
the States and this government. He could foresee incalculable 
evils which might grow out of the conflicting and contrary 
interests of the different States, whenever it should be proposed 
by the federal government to make the call for this money, and 
thus attempt to render the promises to pay operative. He was 
compelled further to apprehend, in consequence of these propo- 
sitions, should they be adopted, an early agitation of the tariff 
controversy, and the revival of local questions which have so 



496 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

recently tried the strength of this Union more severely than it 
had ever before been tried, and given to our institutions a sliock 
which every patriot would long reineniber, and labor to the 
utmost of his power to avoid in future. 

" Ilis second objection, Mr. W. said, was against the rule of 
distribution adopted. It was directed to be made according to 
the representation of each State in the Senate and House of 
Representatives. He must suppose, if Congress possess tlie 
power, under the Constitution, to divide out the moneys in the 
public treasury to the States, or to the peo2:)le of the States, 
that the rule of distribution must follow that which o-overns the 
collection of the same money. That rule is the rule of repre- 
sentation and taxation ; is the rule of federal numbers ; is the 
rate of rejDresentation, as nearly as may be, by which the States 
are represented in the House of Representatives. It has never 
before been proposed to include the Senate in any calculation of 
equality between the States. The Constitution has in no instance 
included it; and he must think that its inclusion here was against 
tlie spirit and against the express provisions of that instrument. 
How had this money been accumulated '? By taxation, direct or 
indirect. From whom had it been collected ? From the people 
of the States. The Coustitution prescribed the rule by which, 
and by which only. Congress might tax them; and that was in 
proportion to their federal numbers. If the money is not wanted 
for the uses of the federal government, to whom does it belong? 
and to whom sliould it be returned ? Most certainly the people 
from whom it has been collected, and in the same proportions 
which governed its collection from them. It should be distrib- 
uted, then, upon the federal numbers of the States, or upon their 
representation in the House of Rei)resentatives alone; and the 
representation in the Senate, which has no relation to the popu- 
lation of tax-paying liabilities of the States, should not be 
included. 

"Another argument against the adoption of this rule of distri- 
bution, of the strongest character, was to be found in the certainty 
it would create that the money would never be called for, even 
to avoid direct taxation. By this rule all the small States would 
obtain a large amount of the money to be distributed, beyond 



Ltfe and Ti3Ies of Silas Wright. 497 

the proportion to which their federal numbers would entitle them. 
Sixteen of the twenty-four States would gain, and eight only 
would lose. Present, then, in this body, where the States are 
represented equally, the alternative of a direct tax or a call upon 
the States for this money, and which do you think, Mr. President, 
would be adopted ? Would the sixteen States prevail, or the 
eight ? and if the sixteen, which alternative would they choose ? 
That, of course, which the interests of the States represented 
here, and holding the majority, should dictate. What would be 
that interest ? In the distribution of the money to be repaid 
they will have received a proportion much greater than their 
proportion of federal population, because the rule of distribution 
included their representation in the Senate. If, then, they con- 
sent to the call for repayment, they must return the money 
received. On the contrary, if these States adopt a direct tax, 
they have only to raise a sum equal to their exact proportions in 
the scale of federal numbers, and therefore will be direct gainers 
by preferring the tax and rejecting a call for the money. 

" Mr. W. said he must, in justice to himself, state that the fact 
that the rule proposed to be adopted would work the greatest 
injustice to his own State had very little influence with him in 
urging this objection. If a distribution was to be made, and 
New York was to be a recipient, it was his duty to contend for 
her rights; but, in debt as she was, if all her citizens entertained 
his feelings and opinions upon this subject, they would look, as 
they most safely might, to her wealth, to her enterprise, to her 
immense advantages and resources, to pay her debts and carry 
her on to her high destiny, and would not prostrate her before 
the national treasury, for the miserable boon of a few hundred 
thousand dollars. Were he permitted to advise, his State would 
never accept the money proposed to be intrusted to her upon the 
terms prescribed. 

"Another objection, Mr. W. said, remained to be answered, 
which had been very generally ui-ged against the propositions he 
had offered upon this subject. It was, that an investment of the 
surplus in the manner he had proposed would be unequal, as 
between the different States; and that those States which had no 
debt, which had issued no stock or securities of any description, 
32 



498 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

would obtain no part of the moneys to be invested. A perfect and 
conclusive answer to this objection might be, that it was at the 
option of the States to issue stocks or not; and therefore it was 
at their option to particijjate or not in these investments, as any- 
State which would issue stocks, and offer them in the market 
upon the most favorable terms, would, of course, be most likely 
to obtain investments. This, however, was not the answer upon 
which he chose to rest his defense to the objection. The objec- 
tion had arisen from the fact that gentlemen had yielded all their 
reflections to the various plans for an equal distribution of these 
moneys to the States; and they had connected, in their minds, 
the propositions he had made with reflections of this cliaracter. 
There was no connection between the two subjects, and he hoped 
to be able to convince every Senator that the objection was 
wholly inapplicable in practice to the plan of investment he had 
suggested. There was nothing in the nature of a distribution 
among the States connected with the plan. No transaction with 
the States, of any sort, was proposed. The adoption of the pro- 
positions could not benefit or injure any State, or give any one 
State any possible advantage over any other State. The invest- 
ments were to be made by a purchase of the stocks in the market, 
at the market value ; and before they could come there they must 
have been sold by the State issuing them. That State, therefore, 
must have received its money, and could have no interest what- 
ever in the sale to the United States, and the purchase by them. 
It must have taken upon itself the obligation to pay the interest 
upon the stock at a given time and place, and to redeem the 
principal at a specified day. No change could be made in these 
obligations by a transfer of the stocks to the United States, any 
more than by a similar transfer to any private individual; and 
whatever premium the government may pay does not go to the 
benefit of the State issuing the stock, but to the holder of whom 
the purchase is made. So, also, if the government sell the stock 
of any State which it may have purchased, the State or its inter- 
.ests are in no way affected by the sale; its obligations and respon- 
sibilities are unchanged. Mr. W. said, the better to illustrate 
his meaning, the Senate must permit him to take a simple busi- 
ness example. I give my note to you, Mr. President, for the 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 499 

sum of $100, payable at the expiration of twenty years from its 
date, with interest at the rate of five per cent per annum; the 
interest to be paid annually at a specified j^lace, and the principal 
to be paid at the same place when it falls due; and I make the 
note negotiable. Can it, by any possibility, interest me whether 
you hold that note or sell it, or whether it be nogotiated but once 
in the whole twenty years or every week in the term; whether it 
be held by individuals or bodies politic, by a pauper or by the 
United States ? Mr. W. said he was unable to comj^rehend how 
his interests could be affected in the supposed case, and he was 
equally unable to discover how the interests of the States were 
to be affected, either beneficially or injuriously, by permitting 
the United States to purchase their stocks in the market, as a 
mere investment of money in the treasury. He was sure gentle- 
men must see that the objection was groundless, and had pro- 
ceeded from the mistaken idea that the States whose stocks 
should be purchased were to be materially benefited, and that, 
therefore, there ought to be some provision to make the pur- 
chases equal among the States; whereas, neither the purchase 
nor sale could affect in any way the interests of the State issuing 
the stocks. 

" So far from desiring this equality, Mr. W. said, the very 
certain inequality was, to his mind, one of the highest merits of 
the propositions. It was not likely that the United States would 
hold the stocks of a large number of States at the same time, 
and those would be held in very unequal quantities. This fact 
would cause the representatives of the States against which no 
securities were held to attend vigilantly to the collection or 
disposition of those held against other States, and, in an equal 
degree, would induce the representatives from those States 
against which small amounts were held to see that those against 
which the amounts were large were made punctually, to meet 
their payments. One of his most important objections to any 
plan of distribution, with a view to repayment, was predicated 
upon the fact that all would be equally interested against a 
repayment; that there would be none to exercise vigilance, 
because all would resist collection ; that repayment would never 
be made, because there would be no one to demand it. Invest- 



500 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

meuts in the manner he proposed would be free from these objec- 
tions, and would stimulate the majority to watchfulness and care 
that collections were promptly made. 

"Mr. W. said he had but one single further suggestion to 
make, and he would resume his seat. He wished to inquire of 
those gentlemen who had voted for the land bill, and who now 
proposed to support the propositions offered by the Senator from 
South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] to distribute the surplus revenue 
among the States, whether the two measures would, or would 
not, conflict with each other? whether they were, or were not, 
intended as antagonistic measures ? That bill provides for the 
distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands on 
specified days, and extends through the year 1837. These propo- 
sitions make the same disposition of all the revenues in the trea- 
sury, over a given sum to be named, upon specified days, with- 
out regard to the sources from which the moneys may have been 
derived, and extends its action through the year 1841. If he 
was not mistaken, the distributions under the two bills were to 
take place, in some instances at least, on the same day. What 
he wished gentlemen to inform him was, which bill would take 
the money; for he suj^posed either would take all which could 
be called surplus. The rule of distribution was very different in 
the two cases, and he would be glad to learn whether it was 
intended, by this measure, to repeal in effect the land bill. His 
inquiries were particularly directed to the author of this scheme 
for distribution, and he should await his answer, 

" When Mr. W. had concluded — 

" Mr. Leigh called the attention of the Senate to a provision 
of the substitute, by which the Secretary of the Treasury, 
though he cannot change the places of deposit during the ses- 
sion of Congress without its consent, yet, during the recess of 
Congress, absolute power of such change is given him beyond 
the remedy of Congress, the Secretary being only required to 
make a fruitless report of his reasons for the change. 

" Mr. Wright acknowledged this to be a feature of his sub- 
stitute for the bill." 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 501 

Before the final passage of the bill, after it had been 
ordered to be engrossed, Mr. Wkight, on the 7th of 
June, 1836, again addressed the Senate as follows : 

"Mr. Wright said his connection with the subject generally, 
and with the bill under consideration more especially, had com- 
pelled him to take a more active part in the discussion than had 
been pleasant to him, or agreeable to the Senate ; that he had 
refrained from any interference with this important matter until 
any further movement upon it had been expressly abandoned by 
the honorable Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun], who 
had first, and upon one of the first days of the session, intro- 
duced a bill to regulate the deposits in the banks; that, after 
that abandonment, he had called up the bill and proposed a sub- 
stitute ; that he had connected with that substitute propositions 
for the temporary investment of any surplus, beyond the proba- 
ble wants of the treasury, which should be found in the banks at 
the commencement of each quarter of each year; that, subse- 
quently to the ofier of these propositions, he had concluded that 
the terms of investment were not sufiiciently restricted, and he 
had modified his provisions so as to allow investments in the 
stocks issued by the States only, and not in any other descrip- 
tion of stocks whatsoever; that, subsequently to this time, the 
Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] had seemed to 
resume his interest in his original bill, and had ofi'ered modifica- 
tions of a character calculated and intended to distribute among 
the several States, in a proportion regulated by their respective 
representations, not in the House of Representatives, but in the 
Senate and House of Representatives of the Congress of the 
United States, all the moneys which might remain in the treas- 
ury upon a given day beyond a sum to be fixed as the amount in 
the treasury for that day. 

"Subsequently to that time, various propositions were laid 
before the Senate, by different members of the body, some of 
them containing new provisions, and others amendments of those 
which had been previously submitted. The question was one of 
the first importance to the public and to the treasury, as well as 
to the general interests of the whole community. The currency 



502 Life and Times of Silas Wbight. 

of the country, the accommodations from the local banks, and 
consequently the prosperity of the commercial interests, were 
directly involved in our action. 

" Under these circumstances, the discussion upon the great 
question of a regulation of the deposits of the public money by 
law commenced. At the opening of that discussion, Mr. W. said, 
he had given his general views upon the whole subject. His 
subsequent duties in the Senate, and as a member of one of its 
important committees, together with the accumulated duties 
devolved upon him, connected with this bill, had prevented him 
from being yet able to present those views to the public ; but he 
was now conscious that relief was at hand, and he should soon 
find it in his power to discharge that labor. Upon the views 
then expressed by him he should rest himself for his general jus- 
tification in the course he had taken. 

" It had been found, however, that a great diversity of opin- 
ion prevailed in the Senate as to the details of any bill, and that 
a recommittal would be indispensable, to so far incorporate the 
various propositions that the whole body could act upon them with 
any facility. After two days' discussion, that course had been 
suggested by himself, and concurred in upon all sides of the Senate. 
A select committee was therefore apj^ointed, and the bill and all 
the amendments were referred to it, and the Senate had done 
him the distinguished honor, upon an election by ballot, to place 
his name at the head of the committee as its chairman. The 
standing and character and talents of the members of that com- 
mittee had caused him to doubt, at every step, the soundness of 
his views and the propriety of his course, and the more especially 
so, as, upon every question of difference of opinion in the com- 
mittee, he had found himself in the minority, and, upon some of 
the most important questions of difference, in a small minority. 

" He was most happy, however, to be able to say, that every 
question had been decided without passion or personal feeling, 
and that, so far as he could judge, all were disposed to frame a 
bill which would meet the approbation of the Senate. 

"A single question had excited peculiar interest with him. He 
had been most anxious to agree upon a bill to regulate the depos- 
its of the public money in the banks ; and when he found that 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 503 

no proposition for the disposition of any surplus, if surplus there 
should be, to which he could give his assent, could command the 
support of the majority of the committee, he had urged the sep- 
aration of the two subjects, and the report of two separate bills ; 
the one to regulate the deposits in the banks, and the other to 
provide for a more permanent disposition of the surplus. In this 
he was unsuccessful, as the majority of the committee preferred 
that the two subjects should be connected in the same bill. 

" Since the report of the committee of the Senate, he had 
made every proper effort in his power to produce that separa- 
tion, and he could not but congratulate himself upon the fact 
that his first effort was successful ; that the first vote of the Sen- 
ate sustained the propriety of his views, and directed the separa- 
tion of the two subjects (which he must say he considered in 
their nature and character entirely separate), and the report of 
independent bills for each. 

"A reconsideration, however, had been proposed, and, after a 
night's deliberation, it was carried. The motion to recommit was 
then lost ; and the determination of the Senate thus expressed 
that the two subjects should be coupled in the same bill, and 
should stand or fall together. From that time, Mr. W. said, he 
had felt himself relieved from all responsibility as to a deposit 
bill proper. He had found that no such bill could be passed in 
the Senate without incorporating with it a perfectly separate and 
most important provision for giving the moneys in the treasury 
to the States, under the name of a deposit. Such a provision 
contained principles to which he could not, for any consideration, 
give his assent ; and after that vote, therefore, the bill to him 
had lost its value. 

" He had been still disposed, however, to adhere to it, and to 
make further trial to so modify its provisions as to enable him to 
give it his suppoi't. With this view he had again offered his 
propositions, which directed an investment of the surplus in the 
treasury in State stocks, bearing an interest, and transferable at 
the pleasure of the holder, with authority in the Secretary of the 
Treasury to transfer them, when the wants of the treasury should 
require money for the stocks. As against a proposition to loan 
the money to the States without interest, this proposition had 



504 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

met with little favor. He believed it had received but four votes 
in a full Senate. The reasons for a different disposition had 
appeared to him to be that the money was the proj)erty of the 
people of the States, and, if not wanted for the uses of this gov- 
erinnent, ought to be given to them, without interest, instead of 
being invested upon interest. He was willing to admit that some 
force attached to this argument ; but his mind had embraced the 
argument as relating to, and growing out of, the representative 
rights of the people of the States, and as referable to their taxa- 
ble liabilities. If the money belonged to the people of the 
States, and they had the right to use it without interest, it was 
because it had been accumulated by taxations upon them, as drawn 
from a common fund, in which they possessed a common interest. 
This he believed was the position assumed by the friends of the 
bill. 

"Would any member of the body, then, blame him for the 
surprise he had experienced when he found a principle of distri- 
l)Ution incorporated in the bill entirely at variance with the 
rights of the people of tlie States, as resulting from the rate of 
representation or taxation established by our common constitu- 
tion of government, when he found this body made an element 
in the rule of distribution of that money which had been drawn 
from the people of the States, to be returned to them, as the pre- 
tense was, because it was not wanted for the purposes of this 
government ? What was the rule of representation of the States 
here ? A perfect equality. What was the representation of the 
people of the States, and the liabilities for taxation, in the other 
branch of this Legislature? There were sixteen States which 
would gain by the rule of distribution in the bill, which sixteen 
States were represented in the popular branch of Congress by 
eighty-one members ; while there were eight States which would 
lose by the incorporation of the Senate as an element in the rule 
of distribution; which eight States were represented in the same 
branch of Congress by 159 members. The constitutional rules 
of taxation and representation were the same; were both based 
upon the federal members ; and in neither was the representation 
in the Senate an element. 

" Would it be said that this was not a proposed distribution 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 505 

of this money to the people of the States, but a mere investment 
of it? Wliy then any reference to the representation of the 
States in either branch of Congress ? And much more emphati- 
cally, why this reference to both, while a simple investment in 
securities of the same character, without reference to the princi- 
ple of distribution, receives but four votes in the whole body? 
Surely no one will liave the hardihood to say, in answer to these 
inquiries, that the disposition intended is not a distribution to the 
States according to a rule which is intended to be defended as 
just and equal. In this sense, could the rule of distribution be 
defended as just, as equal, as constitutional? He would leave 
the answers to these questions to those who supported the bill 
with this provision contained in it. For himself, he was ready 
and willing to say that, in his judgment, if a ix)wer existed to 
return the money to the people at all, the exercise of tliat power 
must follow the rule which raised the money from the people 
by taxation, or from that fund which they held in common, 
and in the same proporti(5ns which govern their liability to taxa- 
tion. 

" Having thus explained himself as to the provisions and pro- 
gress of the bill, he was content to rest upon the record of the 
proceedings upon the bill, which the journal of the Senate would 
show. If, in resisting this division of the moneys of the nation, 
he had misrepresented his immediate constituents, he desired 
that they shoidd know the fact, and especially at this time, when 
it would so soon be in their power, without his consent, to fill 
the place he occupied with a better man. If, in refusing to yield 
to a rule of distribution that does them great injustice, he had 
been less liberal of their strict rights than they would wash him 
to be, he was equally anxious that they should be advised of his 
action, and thus have it in their power to redress themselves if 
they have been aggrieved. 

"Mr. W. said there was yet a question which he had not con- 
sidered, but which must claim his principal attention. He had 
hitherto spoken of the progress of this bill, and of the rule of 
distribution adopted by it. He had not spoken, nor did he 
intend even yet to speak, of the constitutional power of Congress 
to use its taxing power to collect money from the people of the 



506 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

States, not to give back to the people who pay the taxes, but to 
place in the treasuries of the States without interest. This was 
a great question, which he hoped the people of the States would 
decide without ai'gument from him, and to their decision he 
would most cheerfully submit. He was aware he might be 
answered that Congress could not use its taxing power under 
the Constitution to raise moneys for distribution to the States, 
and that the fact that the money was in the treasury had raised 
a necessity from which this power of distribution was assumed. 
When those who should use the argument would show him how 
it was to be ascertained that the money now in the treasury was 
not raised for distribution, and how it was hereafter to be shown 
that any money in the treasury was not raised for distribution, 
he would enter upon a further argument of the points; until 
then he would content himself with saying that Congress could 
possess no greater and no less powers for raising revenue than it 
had possessed from the adoption of the Constitution to the pres- 
ent time, unless the provisions of that instrument, upon that sub- 
ject, should be contracted or enlarged. The question to which 
he referred, and to the examination of which he asked the candid 
and unprejudiced attention of the Senate, was, how much money 
would remain in the treasury on the first of January next, which 
could properly be termed ' surplus,' not required to answer the 
wants of this government, and, therefore, to be given away to 
the States ? He had taken some pains to inform himself upon 
this point, and the best information he could obtain should be 
given to the Senate. 

"By a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, made to the 
Senate on the sixth day of June instant, the amount of money in 
the treasury on that day, subject to draft, was $33,563,654 ; and 
in consequence of the late passage of the appropriation bills, and 
the rapid payments from the treasury under them, that amount, 
over and above the current receipts, is now reduced to less than 
$33,000,000. 

" For the present, Mr. W. said, he would examine the charges 
now existing, and likely to be made, upon this sum ; and what 
were they? 



Life and TniES of Silas Wright. 507 

1. Balance of outstanding appropriations of the last year $5,170,000 

2. Permanent appropriations chargeable upon 183G, viz. : 
Pensions under the act of 7th June, 1832, about $1,300,000 
Pensions to revolutionary officers, per act of 

15th May, 1828, about 160,000 

Virginia claims, per act of 5th July, 1832, about 52,000 

Gradual improvement of the navy 500,000 

Arming and equipping tlie militia 200,000 

Civilization of the Indians 10,000 

Unclaimed dividends and interest of debt 50,000 

Library of Congress 1 ,000 

Three per cent to new States from sales of lands, 500,000 
Proportion of French indenmity payable by the 

United States, being part of the amount to be 

paid by us by the treaty 225,000 

2,998,000 

3. Appropriations already made at the present ses- 

sion of Congress, viz. : 

Navy bill, about $6,276,312 

Civil list 2,707,981 

Supplement to civil list, about 71 ,770 

Army bill 4,010,485 

Seminole war 2,120,000 

District of Columbia debt 1 ,570,000 

Pensions 455,454 

Payment of members of Congress, etc 843,880 

Volunteer army bill 300,000 

Creek war 500,000 

Concurrent resolutions as to claims of States 

against the general government, say 200,000 

Private bills and miscellaneous appropriations 

already made, not less than 100,000 

^ 19,215,882 



508 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" We then, Mr. W. said, had certainty so far ; and how did the 
account stand ? 

The money in the treasury at our last accounts, on the sixth 

day of June instant, was $33,563,654 

There were then appropriations charged upon it as follows : 

Outstanding appropriations of 1835 $5 , 170,000 

Permanent appropriations for the service of 1836. . 2,998,000 

Appropriations already made during the present 

session of Congress toward the service of 1836. . 19,215,882 

27,383,882 

Thus leaving a balance in the treasury, unappropriated on the 

sixth day of the present month, amounting to $6,179,772 

Since that time the Indian annuity bill has passed, and become 
a law, and, including the sums for the removal of Indians, 
appropriates about 1 , 800,000 

Which, taken from the above balance in the treasury, will leave $4 , 379 , 772 

" Mr. W. said he would now inquire, as briefly as was possible, 
what further appropriations remained to be made for the present 
year, and which he thought all would admit must be made. 
And here the first subject which had demanded his notice was 
the Indian treaties which have been ratified by the Senate during 
its present session. He would enumerate but two, the treaty 
with the Cherokees and with the Chippewas and Ottawas. These 
treaties required appropriations, at the least, to the following 
extents: 

The Cherokee treaty to the amount of $5 , 600 , 000 

The Chippewa and Ottawa treaty to the amount of 1 ,500,000 

The fortifications had occupied much of the attention of the 
present Congress, but, as yet, nothing had been appropriated 
toward them. The Senate had sent a bill to the House, pro- 
viding for the purchase of sites, and the commencement of 

ncAV works, and appropriating for that object about 1,100,000 

A bill was pending before the House to provide for continuing 
the work upon the existing fortifications, and proposing to 

appropriate for that object about 2,250,000 

A bill for the continuation of the Cumberland road had been 
sent from the Senate to the House, proposing appropriations 
for that object to the amount of 600,000 

Carried forward $10,850,000 



Life and TniEs of Silas Wright. 509 

Brought forward $10,850,000 

Bills were before the two Houses, and most of them had 
passed the one House or the other, for the improvement of 
roads in the territories, amounting to about 150,000 

A bill had come from the House to the Senate to provide for 
constructing a frontier road along the western frontier of the 
United States, and appropriating for that object 100 ,000 

Two bills, which usually met the favorable action of Congress 
at ever}' session, and more especially at the long session, the 
one for the improvement of harbors and rivers, and the other 
for the erection of light-houses, light-boats, beacons, buoys, 
etc., are before the House, proposing to appropriate for these 
objects 1,500,000 

Provision has been made annually, and it is presumed will be 
made this year, for the compensation of custom-house officers, 
which calls for an expenditure of about 200 ,000 

A bill is now before the House to provide for the increased 
expenditures at the mints, and proposes to appropriate 50,000 

Further appropriations must be made for the Seminole and 

Creek wars, and the least sum estimated to be necessary is. . 3,000,000 

The estimated amount of appropriations by private and local 
bills, not enumerated above, and beyond the $100,000 in- 
cluded in the first statement, is 1 ,450,000 

This presents an aggregate of appropriations to be made, all of 
which are supposed to be to some extent necessary, and even 
indispensable to the public interests, equal to |17»500,000 

Take from this amount the above balance in the treasury, after 
deducting the outstanding appropriations, to wit 4,379,772 

And there will remain, to be charged upon tiie moneys to be 
received into the treasury after the sixth day of June instant, 
the sum of $13 , 1 20^228 

There was another class of appropriations of a public charac- 
ter, which he thought ought to pass, and he hoped might 
pass before the adjournment of Congress. One of these 
measures Avas the filling up of the ranks of the army, and 
which, if successful, he supposed would incur an annual 
expenditure of at least $1 ,000,000 

Several bills were before Congress for the erection of new cus- 
tom-houses, some of which, and especially one at New 
Orleans, and at one or two other points, he hoped would 
pass, and they would appropriate about 300,000 

Carried forward $1 ,300,000 



510 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

Brought forward $1 ,300,000 

Bills were before Congress, and surely ought to pass, for re- 
building the treasury buildings, and there was asked for that 
object, for the present year 250,000 

A bill was also now before the Senate recommending the erec- 
tion of a firc-i)roof building for the Patent Office, and pro- 
posing to appropriate for that object sometliing more than. . 100,000 

Several bills were before the two Houses of Congress, to pro- 
vide for the erection of new marine hospitals, and he sup- 
posed some of them would meet our favorable action. He had 
estimated that the appropriations for these objects would be . . 50 , 000 

Bills were before Congress to remit the duties upon goods 
destroyed by fire in the original packages, many of which he 
thought ought to pass, and would appropriate, if they did 
pass, at the least 1 , 100,000 

A bill is now before Congress proi^osing to advance the unpaid 
indemnities under the treaties with France and Naples. This 
bill would be eminently calculated, to its extent, to relieve 
the present mercantile pressure, and ought to pass. It 
would appropriate about 4i000,000 

A bill has passed the Senate, and been sent to the House, to 
purchase the remaining stock held by private stockholders in 
the Louisville and Portland Canal Company, and appropri- 
ating for that object 500,000 

Here, then, is a further amount, unprovided for, except by 
future receipts into the treasury, of $7,550,000 

Add to this the balance unprovided for except by future receipts 
into the treasury, as shown by the result of the last preceding 
calculation 13,120,228 

And we have an amount of existing and probable appropria- 
tions, beyond any means now in the treasury, equal to $20,670,228 

" Mr. W. said he did not say that these appropriations would 
all he made. He did not believe they would all be made ; but 
he had intended to select, with care and caution, such only as 
were presented to Congress with strong claims ; of many of them 
he could say with claims which seemed to him almost, if not 
altogether, irresistible. He would then ask gentlemen who dis- 
puted his conclusions to point out the important bills he had 
enumerated, which would not and ought not to pass. He had 
given particular reference to the measures, and he hoped they 
would put their finger upon those which they would oppose." 



Life ajsd Times of Silas Wright. 51] 



Chapter LX 

RECHARTERING THE BANKS IN TPIE DISTRICT UF COLUMBIA. 

For tlie business of the District, it liacl a large number 
of banlis in 1836. They all sought extensions or renew- 
als of their charters by Congress. Temporary extensions 
were granted them, and a portion received renewals for 
considerable periods of time. One of them had become 
a deposit bank, and it had been alleged, at a previous 
session, that the deposits were improperly loaned out to 
politicians. Thereupon the House appointed a committee 
to examine that bank. On their arrival, the books of the 
bank were withheld from their examination. Gen. Jack- 
son, on hearing this, sent for its president and informed 
him that, if he wished to have his bank continued a 
deposit bank until sundown, he must invite the commit- 
tee to return and throw its books and papers open to their 
inspection. Of course this was done, for the bank knew 
full well that the President would not be trifled with and 
would keep his word. 

The committee returned and found that the bank held 
numerous notes of democratic members of Congress, 
indorsed by whig members, and notes made by whig and 
indorsed by democratic members. Yery many of the 
makers and indorsers were engaged in speculations in 
public lands. The exhibit was of that character that it 
was not deemed wise to display it in ' a formal written 
report. But bills for rechartering several of the banks 
were reported and warmly discussed. In the Senate, Col. 
Benton took the lead in opj)osition to the banks. A bill 
was passed in the Senate, on the seventh of June, for 
renewing these charters. Mr. Wright made no speech 
against them, but contented himself on this occasion with 
voting against the bill. The vote stood 26 ayes and 14 noes. 



512 Life and Tines of Silas Wright. 



Chapter LXI. 

REDUCTION OF THE DUTIES ON IMPORTS. 

When Mr. .Wright entered the Senate, in January, 
1833, the committees in that body had been appointed, for 
the second session of the twenty-second Congress, at 
the meeting in the previous December. At botli sessions 
of the twenty-third Congress he served on the Committee 
on Commerce. In the twenty-fourth Congress he served 
during the first session as a member of the Committee on 
Finance, and at the second as its chairman, which j)osi- 
tion he long hekl. This committee has charge of most 
revenue subjects. The revenues in 1836 had become 
excessive, and statesmen turned their attention to the 
subject of their reduction. To aid in accomplishing this 
purpose, Mr. AVeight, as chairman of the Committee on 
Finance, on the 27th of January, 1837, introduced a bill 
having that object in view. Not being accompanied with 
a written report, he made the following explanation of it : 

" Mr. Weight said it was his duty here to say that, in con- 
sequence partly of ill liealth, and partly of other and para- 
mount engagements, the committee had been deprived, during 
all its deliberations upon this bill, of the valuable advice and 
aid of one of its members; and that, therefore, nothing con- 
tained in the bill, and nothing which he should say, was to 
be considered as committing that member of the committee, or 
as expressing his views upon the important and interesting 
questions involved. The very late arrival in the city of another 
member of the committee had prevented him from partaking 
fully in their deliberations. The bill, therefore, is to be received 
rather as the conclusions and recommendations of a bare major- 
ity of the committee than of the whole committee ; and it was 
his duty further to add, that what he should now say would be 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 513 

more the expression of his private views, and the motives and 
opinions which had governed his action, than anything he had 
been either authorized or directed by the committee to say. 

" The reference was general, and applied to the whole revenue 
of the country. This revenue (or, more properly speaking, the 
receipts into the treasury) consists of two parts : the money 
derived from the duties imposed upon importations, which is 
revenue proper, and the receipts from the sales of the public 
lands, which is, in fact, capital, and not revenue. The commit- 
tee, upon their first view of the reference, considered this last 
branch of the subject, the receipts from lands, more properly to 
belong to another standing committee of the Senate — the Com- 
mittee on Public Lands. Indeed, at the very time of the refer- 
ence, they knew that the subject of the reduction of the amount 
of money flowing into the public treasury from the sales of the 
public lands was under consideration before that committee; 
and very soon after this reference to the Committee on Finance, 
and before that committee had made it a subject of deliberation, 
the Committee on Public Lands reported to the Senate a bill, 
having for its object the reduction of this branch of the receipts 
into the public treasury. That bill was, long since, taken up for 
action in the Senate, and has, for many days now last past, occu- 
pied the principal time and attention of the body. 

" The Committee on Finance, therefore, have not, at any time, 
considered that branch of the reference before them for their 
action, or that they have been, at any period since the reference, 
at liberty to consider and act upon it. 

" Mr. W. said, another conclusion of his own mind, and one he 
believed existed also in the minds of his colleagues upon the 
committee who were present and acting, was, that if Congress, 
by any legislative action, at its present session, coidd reduce the 
receipts into the treasury to the wants of the government, the 
most important measures to reach that object must relate to the 
lands, and go to reduce the receipts from that source. This con- 
clusion was founded upon the amount of receipts from that 
source for the last two years. These receipts, for the years 1835 
and 1836, counted together, had amounted to between thirty- 
eight and thirty-nine millions of dollars, he did not know but 

33 



514 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

full tliirty-nine millions; a sura which exceeded the usual esti- 
mate of the wants of the treasury for the two years mentioned. 
If, then, every dollar of the revenue from customs were instantly 
repealed, and the receipts from the lands were to continue at the 
rates of the last year, there Avould still be a surplus in the trea- 
sury, or the expenses of the government must be swollen beyond 
the amount which is considered economical and desirable. It 
was, therefore, impossible to apply an efficient and adequate 
remedy for the existing evil of a redundant revenue by any 
reduction of the revenue from customs. The receipts from the 
lands was the seat of the evil, and to that quarter the great and 
commanding remedies must be directed. The committee hoped 
and believed, during the whole of their deliberations, that Con- 
gress would pass the necessary laws, during its present session, 
to lop this branch of our public receipts, and to relieve the 
national treasury from the dangerous plethora now weighing 
upon it from that source. Mr. W. said he yet entertained that 
hope, and his action upon the interesting and important subject 
of a reduction of our revenue from the customs had been influ- 
enced by that hope and belief. 

"Thus confined, as the committee believed they were, to a 
consideration of the reduction of the duties upon customs, 
another principle which actuated himself, and which he believed 
actuated every member of the committee who participated in 
their deliberations, was to move cautiously and safely ; not to 
shock the public sense by any hasty and rash movement ; not, 
if that could possibly be prevented, to disturb any permanent 
and important domestic interest of the country, which had grown 
up, or was now growing up, under the protection of our revenue 
laws; but to go as far as the existing laws would permit, to 
reduce this branch of the revenue without incurring any of these 
evils. Acting upon this principle, the committee had, in the bill 
Avhich he was directed to report, and which he was about to send 
to the Secretary's table, added to the list of free articles every- 
thing which had appeared to them to admit of being made free, 
without injury to the interests to which he had referred. Every 
article proposed to be made free was distinctly named in the bill ; 
and the committee had caused a statement to be prepared, from 



Life and Tlmes of Silas Wright. 515 

the tables of commerce and navigation for the year ending on 
the 30th of September, 1835 (the hist table of that description 
which is yet completed), showing the name or designation of the 
article, the present rate of duty, the amount of importations for 
the year ] 835, the amount of duty paid upon the article as calcu- 
lated upon those importations, and the amount of duty proposed 
to be reduced, as estimated upon the importations of that year. 
Many of the articles named in the bill are not enumerated sepa- 
rately in the tables of commerce and navigation, but are given 
as non-enumerated articles, and so grouped as not to show, with 
precision, the importance of each; but the committee believe 
that the statement will present, with satisfactory clearness to the 
mind of every Senator, the effect of the action they recommend 
by this part of their bill. This statement it was the intention of 
the committee to ask the Senate to order to be printed to accom- 
pany the bill ; and they felt confident it would afford greater aid 
to the action of the body upon the bill than any form of written 
report they could have presented. 

"Among the articles proposed to be made free would be found 
'common salt; ' and Mr. W, said, while it was not his object at 
this time to discuss any of the merits or provisions of the bill, 
he hoped he should be pardoned for the remark, that he knew 
tliis was, by far, the most important article inserted in the free 
list, and an article much more likely than any other to excite a 
deep feeling in the country, and to meet with firm and spirited 
opposition. He also knew that this was, in certain portions of 
the Union, a protected article, and would, in that sense, be con- 
sidered as inserted in violation of the general principle by which 
the committee had proposed to govern their action. Under these 
convictions, he was consoled by the reflection that no State in the 
Union held so deep a stake in this article, as a domestic article, 
and one of domestic manufacture, as the State he had the honor 
in part to represent here. It was an important article to a large 
and most respectable class of the citizens of his State, as one of 
production and manufacture; and it was important to the State 
itself, as a soui-ce of revenue to the State treasury. In these 
aspects he was fully aware of the delicacy of his position in 
having consented, as a member of the committee, to the insertion 



516 iy/i^£ AND Times of Silas Wright. 

of salt as a free article, and in standing here to urge the Senate 
to repeal the duty upon it. He did, however, believe that the 
universal wish of his constituents was that the revenues of this 
government should be reduced to the economical wants of its 
treasury, and that they did not expect to reach that desirable 
result without themselves making their full share of sacrifices to 
the Common object. He therefore relied upon their liberality and 
patriotism to justify him in the course he had pursued ; and he 
did not doubt that they would justify their representatives upon 
this floor, and in the other House of Congress, in consenting to 
this reduction of more than half a million of tax upon one of 
the most prominent and universal necessaries of life, when the 
money raised upon it was not only not wanted for public expendi- 
ture, but was producing dangers to our institutions greater than 
any which those institutions have heretofore encountered — the 
dangers of an overfilled treasury and a surplus revenue. He 
could not be mistaken in the opinion that, if the country could 
be efiectually discharged from these startling dangers, his con- 
stituents, patriotic and intelligent as they ever had been, and 
still arc, would not only justify, but applaud, their representa- 
tives here, for coming forward and offering this sacrifice on their 
behalf to reach so important a national good. 

" Mr. W. said the article of ' wines ' was another important 
article which had presented itself to the notice of the committee, 
and which they would have been inclined to make free, had it 
not been their duty also to notice and regard the stipulations in 
relation to wines in our late treaty with France. Those stipula- 
tions must be preserved with all the national faith which has 
throughout the whole history of our beloved country so signally 
distinguished her policy toward other nations; and in the opinion 
of the committee they put it out of the power of Congress to 
make any wines free until after the expiration of the term men- 
tioned in the treaty, during which the wines of France were to 
have extended to them certain advantages, in our revenue laws, 
over the wines of other countries. Under this impression, the 
committee have recommended a further i-eduction to the extent 
of one-half of the existing duties upon all wines, from whatever 
country imported, thus preserving the proportions between 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 517 

French and other wines, stipulated by the treaty to be preserved 
in our future legislation upon this subject, and pursuing the same 
course of legislation which Congress has, upon two former occa- 
sions, since the ratification of the treaty, pursued in regulating 
the duties upon wines. 

"As intimately connected with this branch of the revenue from 
customs, the article of ' spirits made f i-om vinous materials ' 
attracted the attention of the committee. They found the exist- 
ing duties upon this description of spirits very high, ranging 
from fifty-three to eighty-five cents per gallon, according to the 
rates of proof at which the spirits may be imported, and that, by 
applying the same reduction to this class of duties which the 
committee propose to apply to wines themselves, they would be 
able to reduce the current revenue by a sum not less than from 
$275,000 to $300,000 per annum. It was not without much hesi- 
tancy and doubt that the committee adopted this recommenda- 
tion. They were, and are, fully sensible that a proposition for 
the reduction of the duties upon any description of- ardent spirits 
will not meet with favor in the minds of a very large portion of 
our citizens. They feel no certainty that it will receive the 
approbation of the Senate ; but so deep was the conviction in the 
minds of a majority of the committee of the necessity of a 
reduction of every duty not protective in its character, to secure 
the preservation of those which are so, that they felt bound to 
make the proposition and present it to Congress. The reduction 
in the revenue, which will be effected by its adoption, is so 
important in amount, that the committee hope it will receive the 
calm and candid consideration of Senators before a determination 
shall be made to diminish so extensively the beneficial action of 
the bill they present. To relieve the country from the incalculable 
evils growing out of a surplus revenue is the object of the bill ; 
to do that without a reduction of the protecting duties has been 
the intention of the committee. They have, therefore, not 
touched the duty upon ' spirits from grain,' and they cannot sup- 
pose that the reduction they propose upon one single other 
description of spirits will bring them at all into injurious compe- 
tition with domestic spirits of any kind. 

" Mr. W. said he was extending his remarks further than he 



518 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

had designed, as discussion now was not his object. He would 
not, therefore, refer to any other articles affected by the two first 
sections of the bill. The two great articles of salt and spirits 
wei-e the only ones which he supposed could excite much interest, 
or lead to much discussion or opposition. Hence he had desired 
to bring them more particularly to the notice of the Senate. It 
mip-ht be found that other articles had been unwisely inserted. 
It would be strange if, in so extensive a list, it should not be so; 
but they would not be important, and might be stricken out. It 
would also, no doubt, be found that some articles had been omit- 
ted which ought to be made free; and it might be the pleasure 
of the Senate, when acting upon the bill, to extend reduction to 
articles not now included. The examinations of the committee 
had been careful and diligent, but they had not been as extensive 
'and perfect as they themselves could have wished, though as 
perfect as the time allowed them had permitted. 

" He would now, Mr. W. said, offer, very briefly, the ajjology 
which the committee had to offer for presenting the bill unac- 
companied by any written report. If he had been fortunate 
enough to make himself understood by the Senate, in the 
remarks he had already made, it would be seen that no report 
could make the provisions of the bill more clear, or show more 
accui'ately its influence upon the revenue and \xi)on the articles 
embraced in it, than the statement prepared by the committee to 
accompany the bill would accomplish those pui'poses. The only 
object, therefore, of a report from the committee would be to 
give to the Senate their views, he would say their conjectures, as 
to the receipts and expenditures of the government for the pre- 
sent and future years. After the most mature examination and 
reflection, it was the unanimous opinion of those members of the 
committee who were present, and acting in the matter, that they 
could make no re|)ort upon these points which would communi- 
cate to the Senate any new information, not already in the pos- 
session of every member of the body, or which would furnish 
any valuable or useful guides to the action of Congress upon the 
bill. Were it not proposed, by legislative action, during the 
present session of Congress, to make great and important 
changes, affecting all bi-anches of the revenue, and all the sources 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 519 

from which money comes into the public treasury, calculations, 
estimates, conjectures, might be made as to the revenues of the 
present year ; but all such calculations, even in that case, would 
be most vague and uncertain at best. The experience of the 
last two years has demonstrated the impossibility, with all the 
information which can be reached by those officers of the gov- 
ernment whose sole duty and business it is to manage our fiscal 
affairs, of so perfecting estimates upon this point that they may 
not disappoint us many millions. Distinguished and experienced 
legislators, too, have frequently attempted estimates with no 
better success, and no member of the Committee on Finance can 
pretend to information, or judgment, superior to those who have 
thus erred in their conjectures as to the receipts into our public 
treasury for a given future period. 

"Add, then, the consideration that both branches of Congress 
are, at this moment, considering bills designed to diminish, for 
the future, the receipts into the treasury from the sales of public 
lands ; the impossibility that the committee should know whether 
any bill on that subject will finally pass, and become a law; 
what may be the provisions of the bill which shall pass, in case 
any bill do pass; and what may be the effect, in practice, upon 
the receipts of money for land sales, of any given provisions 
which may be incorporated in any bill, and Mr. W. said he could 
not suppose it would be expected by the Senate that the Com- 
mittee on Finance would have attempted any estimate of the 
amount to be reduced from the revenue from customs, in order 
to reduce the whole receipts in the treasury to the standard of 
the economical wants of the government. Against a body of 
contingencies and uncertainties of the magnitude and character 
specified, added to those which must always attend estimates of 
future revenue from uncertain sources, estimates in name would 
be more loose than ordinary conjectures; and so loose as to be 
of no other value than the mere conjectures of so many members 
of the body to which their report would be submitted. So 
much for the reasons which have led the committee to come 
to the conclusion not to attempt estimates, or calculations, 
or conjectures, as to the amount of money to come into the 
national treasury during the present or any future year. They 



520 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

have satisfied themselves that the reductions from the revenue 
from customs proposed by the bill they recommend can be spai-ed 
by the national treasury, and leave it able to meet the necessary 
calls upon it. They do not petend to say that further reductions 
will not be required to bring the revenue to the point so much 
desired — that of the economical wants of the government. The 
receipts into the public treasury are now greatly above that point. 
The committee have already said their examinations have con- 
vinced them that the great measures of reduction must be directed 
to that branch of the receipts arising from the sales of lands. 
They feel strongly the soundness of the principle that reduction 
should be proceeded in cautiously and carefully, and, so far as 
that can be done, with a certainty that while we are remedying 
one evil we do not fall into another; that while we omit nothing 
which can properly be done to reduce the revenue to the wants 
of the government, we do nothing calculated to carry us so far 
below that point as immediately to produce the necessity of again 
raising revenue by an increased rate of duties upon imports. 
These constant fluctuations, sudden and excessive changes in our 
revenue laws and consequent agitations of the public mind, and 
uncertainties in the oi^erations of mercantile and commercial men, 
Mr. W. said, he thought it most important, in any legislation, to 
avoid. Hence he, as a member of the committee, had determined 
to pursue what he considered a safe course, neither endangering 
nor disturbing any important protected interest of the country, 
or the public treasury in meeting the necessary calls upon it. 
He had not attempted to determine that the bill would do all 
that a full remedy for the existing evil demanded, but merely 
that, in the present state of uncertainty as to the other important 
branch of the public receipts and the influences upon it of the 
instant legislation of Congress, it was all the committee had con- 
cluded, at present, to recommend, and that so much might be 
done safely. 

" Mr. W. said there was no less difiiculty in making calculations 
and estimates upon the other side of this great account, the public 
expenditures. The ordinary expenditures of the government — 
that portion of the expenses required to keep all the departments 
of the government in organization and operation — were laid 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 521 

before us by the proper fiscal officer of the government, and 
appropriations to that extent might be very safely calculated 
upon. All the information within the power of the committee 
upon this class of appropriations had been equally fully in the 
hands of every member of Congress from the commencement of 
the session. No benefit here, then, could be derived from any 
report the committee could have made. All beyond this was 
within the pleasure of the two Houses of Congress and the Presi- 
dent. What extraordinary appropriations they might see fit to 
make for fortifications, for the navy, for public defense generally, 
or for any other of the great objects calling for expenditures of 
money, it was not only out of the power of the committee to say, 
but would be in vain for them to attempt to conjecture, They 
could not, therefore, with any certainty, estimate the expenses of 
the year. Mr. W. said -he felt conscious that the appropriations 
of Ccngress would, as he thought those approj^riations should, 
be graduated by a due regard to the ability of the treasury to 
pay, and the public and national wants to be supplied; but he 
also further believed that a redundant treasury always promoted 
not large merely, but extravagant appropriations; and one of 
his o-reatest anxieties to reduce the national revenues to the 
national wants arose from the conviction that in that way only 
can we preserve a system of economical expenditures. He would 
add no more upon this branch of the subject, hoping the Senate 
would find in these suggestions sufficient apology for the action 
of the committee in submitting the bill without any attempt at 
a report i;])on these vague uncertainties. 

"A single other remark, Mr. W. said, and he would relieve the 
Senate from listening to him further. He had not forgotten that 
another bill had been introduced elsewhere upon this same subject, 
and proposing to accomplish the same great purpose. He hoped 
he should not be considered as infringing, unpardonably, upon 
the rules of order, in making this reference to that measure. It 
might be supposed by some member of this body, it might be 
supposed by some member of the other House of Congress, or it 
might be supposed by some portion of our common constituents, 
that tills bill coming from the Committee on Finance was 
designed to conflict with the measure referred to. For himself, 



522 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Mr. W. said, he could say, with perfect truth, that no such 
motive or feeling had entered into his action. He was sure he 
could say the same for his colleagues upon the committee. 
They had considered the reference of the Senate, in the special 
manner in which it had been made, positive and mandatory uf)on 
them, A report of some sort was their duty, and the report 
which they believed most conformable to their duty, under the 
reference, was the bill he was about to present. The time for 
making their report was not a matter of their pleasure. If made 
in the shape of a bill, they were bound to make it in time to per- 
mit the possibility of action upon it; and they had not been 
unfrequently reminded of the impatience of some members of 
the body for the conclusions to which they should come. Their 
delay had been unintentional and compulsory, and the advance- 
ment of the session had urgently admonished them that further 
delay would be equal to a failure to discharge the important and 
delicate duty intrusted to them. He, Mr. W., thought that an 
examination of the two bills would satisfy every one that they 
could, in no sense, be antagonist to each other. The one pro- 
poses to add largely to the list of free articles, and to make 
material reductions upon two classes of articles not considered 
as belonging to the protected products or manufactures of the 
country. Tlie other proposes to hasten, with very great rapid- 
ity, the reductions proposed to be made by the compromise act. 
It cannot, then, escape attention that there is no contradiction, 
in principle or action, between the two measures. Both may 
make too large, or too rapid, a reduction; but should the bill 
now presented fall short of its object, a sufficient reduction of 
the revenue from customs, it was his duty to say that no other 
mode of further material reductions had suffsrested itself to his 
mind, in the course of his examinations and reflections upon the 
subject, than to adopt the principle of that bill, moderated as to 
time so as to suit the exigency. He would further say, that he 
wished those most interested in the great and important provi- 
sions of the compromise act could see, as he thought he could 
see, that it was their peculiar interest to consent to a modifica- 
tion of that act, which should make its reductions of the revenue 
gradual and uniform from the present period to the year 1842; a 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 523 

little more rapid from this time to 1841, and much less precipi- 
tous and shocking to those interests from 1841 to 1842. As, 
however, the committee had no evidence before them of the 
feeling of the citizens most deeply interested in this policy, and 
as they had determined, if possible, to digest a bill which wouhl 
meet with favor, and be passed into a law, they refrained from 
affixing any such condition to the bill they now report. 

"As to the instant effect of the two measures, Mr. W. said, he 
believed there would be little difference. The bill he held in his 
hand proposed to reduce a fraction over $2,400,000, from and 
after the thirtieth June next. The other measure to which he 
had referred, as he understood it, proposed to reduce about 
$7,000,000, at three periods stated, the first of which was the 
thirtieth of September next, and the only one of the three peri- 
ods falling within the present year. That measure, however, 
was prospective, and this was not; but Congress would be again 
in session before that bill would have effected but one reduction, 
and the accounts of the treasury for another year would have 
been laid before us as our guide to future and further action. 
He would detain the Senate no longer. 

"The bill and accompanying report was then read." 



524 i//i?'^ AND TniES OF Silas Wright. 



Chapter LXII. 

THE SUSPENSION OF THE BANK3, AND HARD TIMES OF 1837. 

The year 1837 will ever be memorable as a time when 
the whole country, in ahnost the twinkling of an eye, was 
plunged from what, on the surface, appeared to be high, 
swimming prosperity, to deep gloom and fearful financial 
distress. Contrasted with 1836, it was appalling. The 
business of banking was a monopoly conferred by legis- 
lation, ISTumerous selected banks were the authorized 
depositories of the public moneys of the United States. 
The more these accumulated, whether from the customs 
or sales of the public lands, the greater their ability to 
lend. In proportion to the ease with which they could 
borrow money, men contracted debts. The mania for 
speculation commenced in 1834, continued through 1835, 
and was at its height in 1836, constituting a mammotli 
bubble which exploded in 1837, bringing ruin upon most 
of those engaged in or connected with it. 

Men of all classes and pursuits neglected or abandoned 
their ordinary avocations, and plunged into the whirlpool 
of speculation. Many left the beaten road to prosperity 
and wealth, and eventually sank, witli all their high 
expectations, in the treacherous quicksands of over- 
excited hopes. Fortunes were made with bewildering 
suddenness, but mainly by marking up the prices of 
speculation property. Debts were contracted with 
thoughtless ease, and, if paid at all, it was done by repe- 
titions of borrowing. Men assumed a style of living 
which would soon prove ruinous, even to the rich. The 
maxim, that men contract debts when money is plenty 
and times easy, and pay them when cash is scarce and 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 525 

times hard, was strikingly illustrated. They got into 
debt by purchasing property at high prices, and were 
compelled to pay them by selling it when low. Creditors 
seldom complain of such fluctuations in prices, as they 
usually proht largely by them. 

The year 1837 presented to the world the sad spectacle of 
communities hopelessly in debt, some to vendors of over- 
valued speculative property, others to the banks which 
had encouraged thoughtless speculators, while the impro- 
vident banks owed the government for its deposits, which 
they were unable to pay. The banks, so willing to lend 
when money was plenty and easily obtained, ceased their 
accommodations, called in all they could, and straggled 
to sustain themselves ; their debtors having, to a large 
extent, little or nothing to pay with other than speculation 
property, consisting mostly of western lands, recently 
bought of the government, and city and village lots, con- 
spicuous principally on lithographed plats. With the 
exception of a small number, all the banks in the United 
States, through policy or necessity, refused to pay their 
debts in lawful money— blandly called "suspending specie 
payments," thereby doing what, if done by a citizen, would 
be called defying their creditors, and throwing upon them 
the consequences of their own mismanagement. Bank 
paper fell everywhere ten or more cents on the dollar, while 
all the property in the Union tumbled down to a far greater 
extent. Suits, judgments and executions were more 
plenty than money. The financial crash was tremendous, 
and its effects extended to everybody. The number of 
those who had treasured up their means, to profit by the 
low prices of forced sales, was not great. But instances 
were known where sagacious and cautious men had, in 
this way, doubled and some quadrupled their property. 

The financial storm came, made its wrecks, and caused 
countless ruins. Whose fault caused it and its conse- 
quences ? Upon this point expressions differed more than 



526 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

real opinions, wliile tlie victims who suffered never 
charged any portion of it upon tliemselves or their own 
follies. There are few, indeed, who so far undervalue 
their own skill and capacity in the transaction of busi- 
ness, and to such an extent as to charge their want of 
success upon their own mistakes. It is far easier and 
much more common to impute it to the government, or 
to a whole community, or absent individuals, from neither 
of whom denials or replies of any kind are ever expected. 
Some imputed the blame to Mr. Van Buren, who had 
been President but a few weeks ; others, to Gen. Jackson, 
who had retired to the Hermitage on the previous fourth 
of March ; but more charged it upon the democratic party, 
while the democracy insisted that it was the bitter fruit 
of overtrading, living expensively upon unrealized 
means, and generally "to the malign influence of wild 
and unregulated speculation." 

It was during the existence of this state of things that 
Mr. Wright used the columns of the St. Lawrence 
Republican, then the organ of the democratic party in 
the county of his residence, to address reflecting men of 
all parties on these subjects. His articles, seven in num- 
ber, published editorially, were under the caption of " The 
Times." After the introductory article published on the 
20th of June, 1837, one appeared every week in the 
successive numbers of that paper, which were extensively 
copied as the recognized productions of his pen. They 
trace the evils which atflicted the country to their true 
source. They produced a profound sensation on the 
public mind, and satisfied reflecting men concerning the 
origin of the evils they felt, although they failed to con- 
vince all who had been victims of their own inexperience, 
or want of judgment or business capacity, that they were 
at all in fault. Tiiese articles are full of wisdom and 
profound thought. But their great length forbids our 
copying them entire. We give copious extracts : 



Life and Tuies of Sjlas Weight. 527 

"The Times.— No. 1. 
" The Causes of the Present Deranged State of the Commercial 

Business of the Country. 
" When evils surround us, and we are aMcted with misfortunes 
of whatever character, there is no rule of conduct more sound, 
more practical or more honest than that we should first seek for 
the causes of our calamities at home ; that we should look to 
ourselves, our families, our possessions, our friends and neigh- 
bors, for the causes of our suffering. If we cannot find them 
there, then we may look abroad to strangers, to politicians, to 
governments, State and national, to the world at large, to see 
whether those who have not been consciously" benefited or injured 
\)j x\fi — those who know us not, and have not heard of us — have 
made themselves the instruments of affliction and injury, acute 
in character, serious in extent and immeasurable in consequences, 
without the common inducements of friendship to work favor, or 
of enmity to inflict injury, which are the common and ordinary 
motives for extraordinary human action, whether good or evil. 

" First, then, for the home view of the deranged state of our 
commercial affairs. And among the causes which have presented 
themselves to us, as plain, practicable men, are the following : 

" 1. Overtrading in that department of business purely com- 
mercial. That this cause exists to an extent beyond any former 
example, in this our young and hitherto prosperous country, will 
not be denied by any man of any employment in business, or any 
party in politics, when he sees, as reported in every department 
of the public press, confirmed by official documents from the 
Treasury department of the nation, that the cost of our imports 
into the United States, for the last current year, have exceeded 
the avails of our exports by the sum of more than 160,000,000. 
" 2. To the speculations in lands, in stocks, in mines and min 
erals, in the produce of the country, and to speculations gener- 
ally. In our village, for a time, our cautious men of business 
were reserved and prudent. Severe experience had taught them 
that the process of amassing wealth was gradual ; that the legiti- 
mate profits of business bear some proportion to the capital 
invested, the skill employed in its management, and the labor and 
risk of the adventurer. Their judgments, for a time, rejected 



528 LiJFE AM) Times of Silas Wright. 

the rumors of fortunes made in a day, without capital, without 
skill, without labor and without risk, because the fortunate 
recipient of the favors of chance had nothing to risk. Yet, 
incident upon incident, and fact upon fact, appear to contradict 
their long and dearly-earned experience. A. and B. and C. made 
and realized their hundreds and thousands,, and tens of thousands, 
who had never before been fortunate in the accumulation of 
property or the management of business. D. and E. and F., not 
particularly distinguished for their capital or business talent, 
were reported to have made their fives, and tens, and hundreds 
of thousands, and received a credit with the business men of the 
place, with their fellow-citizens of the county, and finally with 
the public, commensurate with the rumor of their gains and for- 
tunes. The natural influence of this state of things began to be 
seen upon men of more capital, of more fixed business habits and 
permanent and constant occupations. It was seen that these 
enormous gains sprang from the soil upon which they had long 
lived and toiled, not in the shape of productions from that soil, 
not from the profitable use of those village lots and watei- 
powers, and stores and wharves, and eligible sites, but from their 
purchase and sale with reference to some future and incalculable 
value, of which all seemed to be convinced with a confidence 
equaling the strongest self-interest, but the foundation for which 
sanguine confidence no one could or would explain. Rumor soon 
became fact. Fact overpowered experience and judgment, and 
all — the most sagacious and the most wealthy, as well as the most 
irresponsible and visionary — became infected with the speculating 
mania. Few purchased to use, and few sold who did not pur- 
chase ; but all bought and sold, or bought to sell. House lots, 
store lots, tavern lots, water lots, streets, blocks, and village 
extensions in all directions, became the subject of conversation, 
of contemplation, of trade — of profit. 

"3. The inordinate appetite created by this speculating spirit 
to acquire wealth, without labor, without economy and without 
time. 

" 4. The unnatural withdrawal of men from their regular 
trades, professions and callings, to devote their times and minds 
to speculations only, or to some employment which they do not 



LlIE AND TI3IES OF SiLAS WrIGHT. 529 

understand and for which they are not fitted, because they sup- 
pose it may open a sliorter way to wealth. 

" 5. Too great a subtraction from productive labor and too 
great an addition to those callings which add nothing to the 
general stock of wealth, but are supported by the labor of others. 

" 6. The expeusiveness and extravagance of living consequent 
upon the imaginary accumulations of large fortunes speedily 
and without labor. 

"Are not these causes sufficient for the evils of which we hear 
so much complaint ? And do they not conclusively prove that 
the orio-in of these evils is at home, is with ourselves, and not 
abroad or with others ? 

" If we look abroad for causes, shall we find them ? A foreign 
war mio-ht deranore the business of our commercial men ; we 
have no foreign war. Our domestic disturbances with the Indians 
within our borders are ended, and no one supposes they have 
contributed to our commercial derangements. We are at peace 
Avith all the world. 

" The causes of our troubles, then, are not foreign, but domestic." 

"The Times — No. 2. 
'■^The Causes of the Present Embarrassments of the Banks, and tlie 

Necessity [if necessity there be) for their Suspension of Specie 

Payments. 

"The discussion of the first part of this inquiry might be 
answered by a single short sentence, and that answer would be 
overbanking. But the importance of the inquiry requires an 
examination of facts connected with our banking and currency. 
In the winter of 1833-34, the great panic effort by and on behalf 
of the late Bank of the United States, for an extension of its 
charter, was made in Congress and throughout the country. The 
effort was made in the midst of winter, when the frosts lock up 
the channels of communication and transportation at the north, 
and when there is an almost entire suspension of active commer- 
cial business at the south. The effort was to alarm the public 
mind for the safety of our moneyed institutions, of our currency, 
and consequently of our trade and commerce. It was especially 
directed against our local banks and commercial men, because it 
34 



530 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

was supposed that embarrassment and derangement in those 
quarters, at the moment of the expiration of the charter of the 
national bank, would most conclusively prove the indispensable 
necessity for such a giant money power. The season was well 
selected and the points of attack well taken, but the time was 
not one of pressure, but of plenty; not one of scarcity, but of 
profusion ; not one of depression, but of prosperity. The public 
mind, notwithstanding, did become alarmed and excited. The 
fears of many, and the indignation of more, were aroused, and 
the contest, for a time, was heated and violent beyond any excite- 
ment of a purely domestic character known to our history. Still 
that was a mere panic. The credit and business of some were 
seriously injured, but many were more frightened tlian hurt, 
while this great good was extracted from the intended evil. 

"The local banks were compelled, from the distrust produced, 
to examine their conditions, to contract their operations and 
streno-then their defenses. Their issues were curtailed to an 
immense amount during the four or five months which the panic 
lasted ; their debtors were stimulated to payment, their means 
compacted and the institutions placed in a sound and healthful 
condition. 

"The spring opened and the business season returned. The 
senses of every man proved to him that the alarm had been 
groundless, and that, instead of bankruptcy and ruin and soli- 
tude and desert waste around him, the whole country was over- 
flowing with every jjroduction, prices were fair, the markets 
quick, the seasons prosperous, the moneyed institutions safe and 
guarded, and the currency as equable and retaining as strong 
confidence as any paper currency which had ever circulated 
among the people. The natural consequence of this sudden 
change which was wrought upon the minds and senses of the 
community, even while Congress were daily assembling in the 
capitol to mourn over the national calamities, was an abandon- 
ment of panic memorials, meetings and resolutions, and a return 
to business with renewed energy and increased enterprise. Dur- 
ing the twelve months immediately succeeding, wealth was accu- 
mulated by our citizens with a rapidity and ease never known 
before in any country. The banks were enabled to furnish the 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 53] 

trading and commercial classes all the aid they required, and to 
find yet a large surplus, of the means at their command, uncalled 
for and unemployed. Banking, too, was prosperous and profit- 
able, and those who were not interested in the existing institutions 
sought for and obtained new charters, that they also might com- 
pete for the golden harvest of bank dividends. In this way the 
surplus of bank means and bank facilities, beyond the wants of 
trade and commerce, were indefinitely increased, while public 
confidence in banks, fresh as they were from the ordeal of the 
panic, remained almost wholly impaired. * * * Now and 
then a statesman of thought and experience would dare to speak 
of the dangers of excessive banking ; of the necessity of a more 
broad and permanent specie basis for our large and rapidly 
increasing paper circulation; but such exploded opinions brought 
down, at once, upon his devoted head, the formidable charges of 
loco-focoism, visionary theorizer, silly advocate of an exclusive 
metallic currency in a commercial country, follower of the tiltra- 
isms of the day. 

" Money was cheap and credits were liberal. The banks could 
answer all applicants whose business authorized their applications, 
and wanted yet more customers. Tliis iiBpetus, so suddenly 
communicated to the current business of a whole country, soon 
imparted its influence to those descriptions of property which, in 
ordinary times, are more permanently held for use or investment, 
and a general appreciation in the market was the consequence. 
Stocks took the lead, * * * in the operators in these trans- 
actions the banks found customers. * * * The banks had 
means which the merchants did not want, and those means were 
dispensed liberally in discounts and loans to the dealers in stocks. 

" Houses and lots in the cities and villages next felt the influ- 
ence of this general appreciation of property. * * * Pur- 
chasers for the market, for speculation, for an advance of price, 
ruled the hour, and operators were as regularly patronized by 
the banks, as the most regular dealers in merchandise or the 
stocks. When this proved to be true, the banks were no longer 
troubled with a surplus of means, but, on the contrary, found 
a surplus of customers. Two natural and unavoidable con- 
sequences followed. The banks made large dividends, and the 



532 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

demand for money, and its market value, constantly increased. 
These facts were made to prove conclusively the want of more 
banks, and more banks were regularly granted at the annual 
sessions of almost all of the State Legislatures. The excitement 
became a perfect mania, and diffused itself throughout the whole 
land. Our large cities were extended, in imagination, in all 
directions, until their dimensions exceeded those of any town in 
the known world ; and every village became a city, upon paper, 
both in extent and business importance, as well as in the fancied 
value of lots. Plots were purchased for new cities. 

"This new and enlarged scale of speculation added new 
strength to the already accepted proof of the necessity of more 
banks. Math increased capitals; and also demonstrated, to the 
entire satisfaction of the interested, that the capitals of the 
existing country banks were altogether too small, and ought to 
be increased. 

"The whole republican party was charged, from day to day, 
with hostility to the best interests of the country ; with opposi- 
tion to their own best interests, in blind zeal in the support of 
Gen. Jackson and his measures, against friends, and home, and 
country. In vain, then, we predicted the dangers to flow from 
overtrading, overbanking, and mad speculation. 

" Our evil predictions are already more than realized, and no 
man can now be found who regrets that we have not had more 
banks; while the great mass of our voters, if permitted to speak, 
would profoundly regret that we ever had any. The false bub- 
ble of speculation has now burst, and, thanks to the wisdom, and 
foresight, and patriotism of the republicans of our country, finds 
us less embarassed than those who have reaped more industriously 
from the abundant harvest of the excesses of the ' credit system.' 

" A further class of customers to the banks, who have contri- 
buted not a little to their present embarrassments, are the direc- 
tors and officers of the banks themselves, many of whom have 
entered largely into the stock and land speculations, and all the 
overtrading, the lumber speculations and all the other excesses 
of the times; while others, and we fear not a few, have diverted 
the means of the institutions of which they have had the charge, 
since the present pressure commenced, to the shaving operations 



Life and Times of Silas Whigjst. 533 

which tlie high price of money has invited, instead of regular 
discounts to their customers, which the necessities of the times 
have required, 

" From this history of the times we conclude that the causes 
of the present embarrassment of the banks are: 

" 1. Overbanking to legitimate customers. 

" 2. Unreasonable loans to stock brokers and stock dealers. 

"3. Unrestrained loans to speculators in city and village 
houses, lots and other real property. 

" 4. Unrestrained loans to speculators in real estate generally, 
such as farms, proprietary rights in our own State, government 
lands in the western States, timber lands in Maine and Canada, 
and the like. 

" 5. Loans to their own directors and officers, to the injury of 
their legitimate customers, the commercial community. 

"6. An excess of banks, inviting to these excesses; and banks 
granted to persons who had no money to invest, but wanted 
money to use, or the stock of a new bank to sell at a premium, 

" It remains for us to inquire for the necessity (if necessity 
there be) for the suspension of specie payments by the banks. 

" Every bank is chartered with peculiar and invidious privi- 
leges, privileges not granted except to incorporated banks, and 
expressly prohibited to the citizens of the State by a highly penal 
law. In exchange for these privileges they are subject to certain 
reasonable and mild liabilities, the most severe of which is that, 
when they exercise the high and sovereign privilege of issuing 
their notes to the people as money, as currency, they shall, at all 
times, be ready to redeem those notes on demand with gold and 
silver. This liability is enforced by their charters, upon the 
pain of an immediate declaration of insolvency and forfeiture of 
all their chartered privileges. All banks, therefore, which have 
refused to redeem their notes in specie are, prima facie, insol- 
vent, notwithstanding the Legislature have temporarily relieved 
them from the forfeiture of their charters. 

"Every bank in the State, with perhaps one or two exceptions, 
has refused to redeem its notes in specie. 

"Whence, then, the necessity of the suspension of specie pay- 
ment on the part of those not insolvent ? Is there any other 



534 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

answer than that their customers cannot be sustained without 
further accommodations ; and that while some of the banks must 
suspend specie payments, or stop altogether, they cannot continue 
specie payments and afford the accommodation these customers 
require ? We see no other possible answer to this inquiry. Who, 
then, let us inquire, are these customers for whose benefit the 
community are to be visited for a day, a year, or any longer 
period, with an irredeemable paper currency ? They are : 

" 1. Merchants who have overtraded. 

" 2. Stock brokers and stock dealers who have made bad bar- 
gains and let them rest upon their hands. 

"3. Speculators in city and village houses and lots, and other 
real property, who have purchased and failed to sell while prices 
were up and markets wei-e open. 

"4, Speculators in real estate, generally, who have gone 
beyond their capital, and depended upon bank loans to bear 
them out against the hazards of purchasing farms and wild 
lands for resale. 

" 5. The directors and officers of the banks, who have accom- 
modated themselves with the means of the institutions in their 
charge, and do not find it easy to pay. 

" 6. The managers of such new banks as have found it conve- 
nient to take out, in the shape of loans, the very money which 
the charters compelled them to pay in, as capital, at the very 
earliest meetings of the board of directors, for discount, and who 
do not find it convenient to return the amounts. 

" We shall leave it for others to attempt to show, if they choose, 
the benefits to community, or to any possible interest, other than 
that of the stockholders, directors and officers of a bank, which 
is, in fact, insolvent, suspending specie payment for a year, 
whether by permission of law. or otherwise." 



Ltfe and Times of Silas Wright. 535 

" The Times.— No. 3. 

" The Agency, if any, of the late Treasury Circular, demanding 
Gold and Silver in Payment for the JPublic Lands, in Pro- 
ducing the Present Commercial Derangements and Bank 
Embarrassments. 

"In two former articles we have pointed out what we consider 
to be the pi'orainent and controlling causes of the present derange- 
ments in the commercial business of the country, the causes of 
the pi'esent embarrassment of our banks, and of the necessity 
(if necessity it can be called) for their present suspension of spe- 
cie payments. Those articles contain a general history of the 
overtrading, overspeculating and overbanking of the last few 
years, and it only remains for us now to show the connection 
between those dangerous business excesses and the treasury 
circular in question, and then to point o^^t the influence which 
that measure must have had, so far as it can have any influence, 
in bringing about the present state of things in our monetary 
afl"airs. 

" First, then, for the connection between overtrading, over- 
speculating and overbanking and the order in question, and here 
we must give a brief sketch, as our limits will not permit us to 
give a history. 

"Congress adjourned on the 4th day of July, 1886, having 
passed an act regulating the public moneys in the State banks, 
and making imperative that disposition of all money then in the 
treasury, or which should thereafter be received into it. Pre- 
vious to the passage of that act, the system of deposits with the 
State banks was one resting upon executive order only, and, 
therefore, subject at all times and in all things to executive dis- 
cretion. This law, we do not say improperly, limited and res- 
trained that discretion, while it made the duty of depositing 
with these institutions comj^ulsory. 

" During the two years prior to the passage of this law, the 
public revenue, both from customs and lands, had been under- 
going a process of accelerated accumulation not less astonishing 
than frightful. Astonishing, because the receipts of single years 
more than doubled the estimates of the most faithful and com- 



536 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

petent fiscal officers, as well as the most experienced and saga- 
cious statesmen; and fi-ightfiil, because the receipts from customs 
furnished demonstrative evidence of the most excessive ovei'- 
trading, while the receipts from lands afforded equally clear 
evidence of a state of speculation in the public domain still 
more excessive and dangerous. 

" The national debt had been finally extinguished by the sur- 
plus revenues of 1834, and of previous years, and the economical 
expenses of the government was tlie measure of the wants of the 
treasury. The accumulation of money in the banks, not wanted 
by the treasury for immediate use, had become alarming. The 
amount on dej^osit on tlie 1st of January, 1836, according to 
our present recollection, was not short of $40,000,000, and the 
receipts from both customs and lands, from the first of January 
to the first of July of that year, promised an addition to the 
former accumulation in the banks, which would make the safety 
of those institutions, consequently their management and opera- 
tions, matters of the deepest concern to the treasury of the 
nation, to its financial movements, and to the vast amount of the 
property of the people intrusted to their safe-keeping. 

" The adjournment of Congress, to which we have referred, had 
taken place without any action of that body upon the repeated 
and varied recommendations of the President for the reduction 
of the public revenue from both customs and public lands; the 
adoption of a system for the distribution to the States of the 
sui-plus, over five millions of dollars, which should be found on 
deposit on the 1st of January, 1837, being the only legislation 
touching that great interest. 

"In tlie mean time, such had been the fruits of overtrading and 
speculation, that the customs, alone, promised to yield from 
twenty-four to twenty-five millions for the year 1836, while the 
speculations in the public domain had become reduced to a system, 
and, added to the sales for settlement, and to the enterprises of 
individual speculators, associations were formed and forming of 
every imaginary amount of capital, counting from single thou- 
sands to millions, and extending their stock interests to every 
considerable town and village in the country, and their specula- 
tions to every point where public lands were open for sale, and 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 537 

perhaps we might say, with equal truth, to every point where the 
Indian title had been extinguished, or was about to be extin- 
guished, until, from an ordinary average of about three millions, 
as the avails to the treasury of a year's sales of the public lands, 
the receipts of 1835 were more than fifteen millions, and those of 
1836, unless restrained by governmental action, promised to be 
nearer thirty than twenty-five millions. 

" Immediately upon the adjournment of Congress, the President, 
justly alarmed at the rapid and fearful progress of overtrading 
and excessive speculation, examined the facts in relation to the 
payments made for the public domain, and found that the estab- 
lished process was a mere exchange of those valuable and selected 
lands for bank credits, rendered vastly more doubtful and hazard- 
ous by the immense amounts of the national treasure accumulat- 
ing in the deposit banks. An ordinary certificate of deposit in 
favor of the Treasurer of the United States was the only con- 
sideration appearing at the treasury for millions of acres monthly 
conveyed to purchasers. The examination showed that these 
certificates were mere indorsements of credits from individuals 
to banks and from one bank to another. No real capital or cur- 
rency of intrinsic value was found to enter into any part of the 
operation, but the specuhitor executed his note to some bank, 
with indorsers to the satisfaction of tliat bank; that bank, upon 
the strength of the note, issued its certificate of deposit in favor 
of the properly located deposit bank, and, upon the strength of 
that credit with another banking institution, the deposit bank 
issued to the receiver of the proper land office its cei-tificate of 
deposit in favor of the national treasury. This certificate, which 
entitled the holder to the land thus paid for, was of precisely 
the same, and no greater, validity than the same amount of 
the notes of the bank issuing it; and this was the payment 
to the nation for its most valuable domain, at a time when the 
public treasury was not in want of means, but was overburdened 
with the possession and safe-keeping of millions, which, during 
the following year, were to be distributed to the States to get 
rid of them. 

" In the absence of legislation, and during the recess of Con- 
gress, the President was left to apply to this great and alarming 



538 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

and constantly increasing evil such remedy as the executive 
power of the government could apply, which was partial and 
limited. The law declared that nothing but gold and silver 
should be a tender in payment of debts due to or from the United 
States, and the receipt and disbursement of bank credits, in the 
shape of bank notes, in any department of the public service, 
was mere matter of sufferance and convenience, and not of law. 
To compel the entry of real capital, or its equivalent in a currency 
of intrinsic value, to enter, at some stage, into these land specu- 
lations, the President directed the treasury order in question, 
and the exception in the order in favor of settlers is a sufficient 
record evidence that his object was to check speculation, and 
not to impede the settlement and improvement of the lands. 
This order required payments in constitutional and statute cur- 
rency, for lands, after an early day, named in it, from all except 
settlers, and from them after the 15th day of December, 1836. 

" That the order of July has had the effect to arrest and almost 
put a stop to further sjieculations in the public lands we most 
cheerfully admit. * * This result has directly benefited com- 
merce, by arresting that fearful drain of capital, which was so 
rapidly commencing, from the old States, and especially from 
the commercial cities, to seek investment in the immense public 
domain of the nation. 

"It has benefited business generally in the same way, and 
also by drawing back the attention and energies of a vast num- 
ber of our most enterprising citizens, who were carried away by 
the mania, to their farms, their merchandise, their professions and 
callings, and to a preparation, so far as the means may be left to 
them, to meet this day of trouble. 

" It has directly benefited the banks, by stopping their loans 
to speculators in real estate, and thus adding to what is now 
believed to be no inconsiderable proportion of their means 
locked up in lands, if not dependent upon the success of a doubt- 
ful speculation. 

" Now for the influence of this order upon the present commer- 
cial embarrassments: It has not induced the merchants to con- 
tract debts beyond their power to pay; but, on the contrary, it 
should have been a timely caution to them against incurring 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 539 

obligations to be discharged by the precious metals only, when 
they were notified by it of this increased domestic demand about 
to be made. Had not the merchants overtraded to the amount 
of over sixty millions in a single year, their necessities for gold 
and silver for exportation would not have been thus severe and 
ruinous, nor would our banking at home have produced a coun- 
ter-necessity for the precious metals much more imperious than 
any which can grow out of transactions between merchant and 
merchant, — the necessity for a restoration of the prostrate cur- 
rency of a whole country, deranged, distrusted, depreciated, by 
the inability of the banks to pay specie for their notes. The 
order, then, has been a positive benefit, in so far as its influence 
has gone to restrain overtrading and overbanking, two of the 
severest evils under which we now sufi'er. We have already 
enumerated, as benefits to the public from this order: 

" The arrest of the immense drains of capital from the commer- 
cial cities and old States to the west and south, to be invested in 
lands; 

" The breaking up of the speculations in government lands; and 

"The consequent return of the attentions and energies of the 
enterprising speculators to regular, productive labor in their sev- 
eral professions and callings. 

" We now add another benefit of the order, which, at the pres- 
ent time, will be more properly estimated by the community in 
consequence of the present condition of the currency. We 
allude to the direct and powerful tendency to retain the gold 
and silver in the country, and prevent their exportation. This 
influence is exerted by creating a demand for the precious metals 
as strong as the desire of our emigrating population from the old 
States to establish for themselves homes upon the public domain; 
and, by contracting, not the laws of trade and commerce, or of cur- 
rency, but a necessary consequence of overtrading, the tendency 
of all the gold and silver of the country to the great seaports for 
exportation, to pay that excess of foreign debt contracted by the 
merchants which the productions of the country are insufiicient to 
pay. This is the true version of the action of that order, about 
which its opponents so much and so loudly complain, and which 
they term a violation of the laws of commerce. Before the suspen- 



540 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

sion of specie payments by the banks, the people may have been 
confused by this jargon about the hxws of commerce, principles 
of trade and natural flow of currency; but now that the banks 
themselves have declared the insufficiency of gold and silver in 
the country to form a safe basis for our paper currency, and have 
been compelled to let that currency sink for the want of this 
vital, sustaining principle, it will not be easy to convince the 
plain common sense of our freemen, that the measure which has 
been more instrumental in retaining with us the little specie we 
have than all the other acts and measures of the government — 
State or national — of banks, or of individuals, is the greatest 
cause of our want of specie to enable the merchants to pay their 
debts, or the banks to fulfill their promises and redeem their 
notes. The day is too late for such contradictions and gross 
absurdities to gain credit with the people; and, as in many former 
instances, the wisdom, policy and justice of this measure of the 
venerable statesman who was its author are demonstrated, vin- 
dicated and exalted by the mad perseverence of its opponents in 
their measures persisted in to prove him wrong. The laws of 
trade draw our gold and silver to foreign countries to pay the 
unwisely contracted debts of our mercliants; this execution of the 
laws of our country by Gen. Jackson draws these precious 
metals to and retains them within our own limits to purchase 
farms and houses for our citizens. 

" The time was when it might have been very difficult to cause 
the correct conclusions upon this part of the subject to be received 
by the public, because the merchants, speculators and the bankers, 
the only classes of persons whose business brought them to a 
necessary acquaintance with the true action of the order ujjon 
the banks, were interested in producing erroneous impressions, 
that they might charge to the order whatever evil consequences 
should flow from their own monstrous excesses. That time has 
passed, and the whole people can now see what has been done 
and to what condition we are brought. 

" Have the banks been influenced by this most healthful and 
proper caution, constantly given by the action of this order, and 
curtailed their business ? If they have not, the merchants and 
borrowers from the banks have had no cause of complaint in 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 54X 

consequence of this tendency of the order, because they have 
had constantly all the loans the banks were disposed to let them 
have without reference to it. If the banks have curtailed their 
accommodations in consequence of the safe and salutary tenden- 
cies of the order in this respect, have they done so to an extent 
beyond what prudence and safety required ? If they have not, 
then again the merchants and borrowers from them have no right 
to complain, because, notwithstanding the curtailment, they have 
continued to enjoy a greater amount of accommodations than 
the banks could extend with prudence and safety. Let, then, 
the present condition of the banks answer our inquiry. The 
doors of all, comparatively speaking, in all quarters of the coun- 
try, are closed against the redemption of their bills. To this 
extent they have declared their own iusolvency. And why have 
they done it ? Is it not because they have loaned beyond their 
means and relied upon their debtors for aid when aid should be 
required, and that those debtors cannot or do not pay ? Can 
any other reason be assigned for their suspension of sjjecie pay- 
ment? Most certainly not. Then they have overbanked. They 
have extended accommodations beyond their own means, and 
upon responsibilities which do not answer them in their time of 
need. 

" And let us recollect again, here, that every dollar of specie 
paid under the order, by positive operation of law, goes imme- 
diately into the vaults of some bank, and that the necessary 
action of the order, therefore, is, the collection of gold and silver 
from the purchasers of lands for deposit in the banks; and then, 
when we all know that all the banks, deposit banks as well as 
others, even with direct aid from the order itself, cannot redeem 
their notes with specie, can we listen to the complaints that the 
tendency of this order has been injuriously to restrict banking? 
Let the farmers, the mechanics, the laboring classes of the coun- 
try, who have the avails of this labor in irredeemable and incon- 
vertible bank paper in their pockets, answer." 



542 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

"The Times.— No. 4. 

" I'he Probable Continuance of tlie Suspension of Specie 

Payments. 

"The discussion of this question involves points of delicacy 
of which, we trust, we are not insensible. We can say with 
perfect trust, however, that no hostility to any banking institu- 
tion in the State or country, and no prejudice against banks gen- 
'erally, leads us to the discussion; but a strong sense of the duty 
we owe to our readers, as the conductor of a public journal, 
requires this notice at our hands. 

" Three distinct interests will be found to be involved in the 
decision of the question. 

" 1. The interests of the banks themselves. 

" Under this head we trust that we may assume one position, 
without the apprehension of contradiction or question from any 
quarter whatsoever, and that position is, that it is the interest of 
every bank to continue the suspension of specie payments so 
long as they can keep their credit so as to make their notes cur- 
rent with the community as money. The incorj)orated banks 
have vast privileges, and still more important exemptions. Their 
privilege of issuing, by express authority of law, their paper 
promises to pay gold and silver on demand as currency, to take 
the place of gold and silver in the hands and pockets of the 
people, is nothing less than the delegation to them of one of the 
most delicate, important and resi)onsible prerogatives of the 
sovereignty of any civil government. Their exemption from 
liability to pay any description of their debts, beyond the mere 
amount of stock paid into the bank, is an invidious privilege to 
these artificial corporations over those extended to natural per- 
sons, the citizens and freemen of our country, which would 
startle every honest mind, not familiarized, by custom and use, 
to this legislative preference for soulless paper existences over 
the persons of God's creation, with hearts and souls and con- 
sciences, and at least some sense of moral obligation. The only 
real consideration to the community for this privilege of creating 
a currency on the one hand, and an exemption from liability for 
the most just debts on the other, is the simple and most just 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 543 

obligation to pay on demand at the hanJcing-hoicse the gold 
and silver for their promissory currency, their bank notes, which 
are mere promises to pay gold and silver. When this obligation 
is discharged by legislation, or the voluntary action of the banks,- 
the people lose wholly their slender equivalent for one of the 
most important rights surrendered to these corporations; the insti- 
tutions are discharged from their only onerous responsibility, and 
what is called currency is the mere form of a promise to pay, 
most tastefully executed, without any intention on the part of 
the promisor to pay, and with the knowledge on the part of him 
who receives the promise as money that it will not be paid. 

"The bank which issues notes which it cannot redeem in 
specie, while the obligation to pay specie imposed by its charter 
remains annulled by legislation and unrevoked by the bank, 
practices a fraud upon the public, for which a natural pei'son 
would be eonvicted of the crime ol' swindling, and have a cell 
assigned him in some one of the public prisons provided for the 
punishment of high crimes against the peace and safety of civil 
society; but the bank which issues bills, after its obligation to 
redeem them in specie has been revoked by itself, in a public 
declaration, persisted in by its practice, or annulled by legisla- 
tion, is guilty of no fraud against the public or individuals. It 
is true the bank promises to pay; but it declares before the pro- 
mise, and that declaration is made known to him who receives 
the promise, that it will not pay. He, therefore, cannot com- 
plain that the promise is not fulfilled, who was told, before it 
was given, that it would not be fulfilled. 

"Such is the present relation between the banks of this State 
and the people, produced by the published declarations of the 
banks that they would not redeem their notes with gold and 
silver, and the law of the Legislature exempting them from the 
severe penalties imposed by their charters for this act of faithless- 
ness to the community. 

"Who can, then, doubt the soundness of the position with 
which we set out, that it is the interest of every bank to continue 
the suspension of specie payments to the latest hour at which 
they can sustain their present credit and the present circulation 
of their notes without these payments? 



544 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" Are we not, then, safe in the conclusion that, so long as the 
banks are actuated by their own interests, a return to specie 
payments is not to be looked for from them as a voluntary 
•movement, while they can continue to furnish the circulating 
medium for the people, without the redemption of their notes in 
specie ? We confess the conclusion appears to us to be perfect 
demonstration. 

" We next propose to consider 

" 2. The interests of the customers of the banks. 

"These are three classes, viz.: Men engaged in commercial 
and mercantile pursuits, manufacturers, mechanics, and all other 
classes of citizens, whose regular callings make them legitimate 
borrowers from banks to carry on their business; men engaged 
in speculations of every description ; and what may, perhaps, pro- 
perly be termed miscellaneous borrowers. To whatever extent 
either of these classes of citizens may now be indebted to the banks, 
and require an extension of their credits, to that extent they must 
be interested in the postponement of the day for the resumption 
of specie payments, inasmuch as curtailment of accommodations 
and collection of debts must precede resumption. The men 
ensraffed in commercial and mercantile pursuits have overtraded 
to an enormous extent. The foreign debt against them is, there- 
fore, large; millions upon millions beyond the value of the pro- 
ductions of the country seeking a foreign market. This balance 
must be paid in a currency of intrinsic value, or must be post- 
poned until an excess of productions over importations shall 
meet and cancel it. Under these circumstances, what is the 
strength of the claim of this class of creditors of the banks to 
that indulgence from the people which shall impose upon them 
a discredited and depreciated currency for a length of time, that 
this balance of an excessive foreign trade may be wiped off, by 
the exportation of the balance of gold and silver yet remaining 
in the country ? 

" We know that the derangement of the times, occasioned by 
the mad speculations, must, in a greater or less degree, extend 
its influence to regular dealers and business men, who have kept 
themselves aloof from the passions of the day ; but the law of 
the Legislature gives to such twelve months to separate them- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 545 

selves from the speculations, to contract their business, to con^ 
ceutrate their means, and pay or arrange their liabilities to banks 
and others ; and, during the time, taxes the whole community 
with the derangements, obstructions and losses, to be experienced 
in every branch of industry and every department of business, 
from an inconvertible and depreciated currency. Is this a libe- 
ral time for the whole people to suffer for the benefit of a few V 
And when the present depreciation of the paper currency, from 
ten to twelve and a half cents upon every dollar, is estimated, is 
it not a sufficiently liberal tax for the people to pay to relieve 
the commercial and mercantile classes ? 

" The same remarks, substantially, are applicable to manufac- 
turers, meclianics and all others, who are legitimate borrowers 
from banks to carry on their business, and the same conclusion 
must therefore be applied to them also. 

" If such are the claims upon the community of commercial 
men, merchants, manufacturers, mechanics and other useful 
classes of citizens, what must be said of similar claims when 
pressed by mere speculators ; men who substitute cunning for 
capital, and deception for skill in any trade or profession; persons 
whose object as well as occupation it is to unsettle the regular 
order of business, the established value of property and the set- 
tled judgment of men? Have they claims to sympathy or for- 
bearance ? Have they a right to ask the whole people to endure 
a deranged and depreciated currency, for a j^rotracted period, 
that they may realize the golden harvest they have anticipated 
fi'om their bold progress in mischief? We do not see the merits 
of such a claim from such a source. 

" 3. The interest of the people in this question. 

" For the last six or seven years, the people of this State, 
through their representatives in the Legislature, have been much 
too indulgent in yielding to the cupidity of individuals, and the 
personal and unwearied solicitation of the interested local bank 
charters, and the mischiefs resulting from that mistaken lenity 
are now visiting themselves upon us with a severity which usually 
pursues any criminal laxity of vigilance in a popular government. 
Almost from the commencement of our governments. State and 
national, banks have been incorporated by legislative authority, 
30 



546 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

and, hy the powers and privileges granted to tiiem, have been 
made the practical trustees of the currency of the people. As 
we have receded from the days of the Revolution, the sufferings 
of that period, and one of the most severe among them was 
depreciated paper currency, have become dim in the recollection, 
and in just about this proportion we have increased our banks 
and our paper circulation. But one revulsion of a general char- 
acter, anterior to the present time, has overtaken us in this career 
of substituting credit for money. That revulsion, much less 
general and severe than the present, was occasioned by the worst 
of all calamities, a foreign war and a barren treasury ; and was 
made imperative, much more by the wants of the national trea- 
sury and its calls upon the banks for support, than from any 
exigencies growing out of the private and ordinary transactions 
of the banks themselves. In consequence of this the banks were 
countenanced and sustained by the people in their suspensions 
of specie payment. Then the choice for the people to make was 
between the preservation of their soil and their liberties, assailed 
by a most formidable foe, and the preservation of their currency, 
impaired to support the government in an arduous struggle. 

" Now we have a revulsion, entirely universal, and that imme- 
diately succeeding a period of prosperity such as no country on 
the face of the earth ever before experienced, and without any 
national calamity, of any character whatsoever, preceding or 
accompanying it, with which it can be in any possible way con- 
nected. It has proceeded wholly from overtrading, exces- 
sive speculations, and all sorts of extravagance, consequent 
upon excessive banking and the cheapening of credits in every 
department of business. All banks have suspended specie pay- 
ments, and we have an inconvertible paper currency, depreciated, 
upon an average, full ten per cent below the par value of money. 

"This is the injm-y under which the people now suffer; and its 
necessary consequences, an instability in the prices of property, 
to the great depression in value of property generally, and the 
perfect uncertainty whether that which is currency, is money, to 
the citizen, when he goes to his rest at night, may not be value- 
less paper when he arises in the morning, attend this derange- 
ment of our currency much more closely and extensively than 



Life and Times of Silas Wukiht. 547 

upon any former occasion, because the causes now apparent loi- 
this suspension by the banks are so insufficient to excuse the 
course pursued. 

"All this being done and suffered, we say the people should 
command an immediate restoration of specie payments. Not a 
day more should the continuance of the suspension be suffered. 
Members should be sent to the next Legislature whose principles 
and opinions are with the people upon this point. 

"Let, then, the banks now know that that act of suspension is 
the last, and let them and the next Legislature be prepared for 
the exj)iration of that law." 

"The Times.— No. 5. 

" The Duties and Hesponsibilities imposed upon the National 

Govermnent by the Suspension of Specie Payments by the State 

Hanks. 

" The duties and responsibilities of the federal government, in 
tliis as well as in other respects, must be measured by its dele- 
gated powers, and it will, therefore, be proper for us to look at 
the extent of those powers before we attempt to prescribe the 
duties or impress the responsibilities upon our public servants. 

" The Constitution of the United States is the charter of the 
powers and privileges conferred upon the government of the 
United States ; it is the only charter of powers or privileges 
which has ever been granted by the people or the States to that 
government. To that instrument, therefore, alone, we have to 
look for the powers after which we seek, to determine the extent 
of the present discussion. 

" In the fifth clause of the eighth section of the first article of the 
Constitution of the United States, among the powers conferred 
upon the Congress of the United States, we find the following: 
'To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin.' 
This is every word we find in that instrument conferring upon 
Congress any power whatsoever over our coin or currency. The 
power here conferred is full and exclusive to make the coin and 
declare its value, and to declare the value of foreign coins, and 
here it ends. Nothing is found relative to the regulation of the 



548 Life and Tuies of Silas Weight. 

currency, any farther than that currency consists of coins, and 
not one word as to the regulation or equalization of our exchanges, 
foreign or domestic. 

" We, therefore, repudiate and reject, from our consideration 
of this topic, all the modern ideas of our political opponents, and 
perhaps of some of our political friends, as to the duties of the 
federal government in relation to our currency, and of the 
exchanges between the States. These are new doctrines, which 
have grown up with other imagined necessities for a national 
bank, and, indeed, constitute the essence and root of all the argu- 
ments out of which such an institution, under our system, ever has 
grown, or ever will be produced in future. All the reasoning, here- 
tofore, in favor of a national bank has been drawn, not from the 
Constitution, but from expediency ; not from any grant of power, 
but from supposed implication to almost every important power 
conferred upon Congress. If all the reasons ever urged be care- 
fully examined and traced to their proper source and bearing, 
they will be found to result in the position that it is necessary 
or expedient, or both, that Congress should assume upon itself 
the regulation of the currency of the States generally, and also 
the regulation of exchanges between them. All this field of dis- 
cussion we exclude from our consideration of the present subject, 
with the declaration that Congress has no power to do these 
things by the Constitution; that Congress has never done them, 
and that Congress cannot do them. 

"We do not intend, upon the present occasion, nor is it neces- 
sary for our purpose, to express an opinion, or enter into any 
discussion, as to the extent of the powers of the State Legisla- 
tures over the collection of debts within their respective limits, 
or how far they may authorize, establish and regulate, either 
through the instrumentality of banks or otherwise, a practical 
currency within their jurisdictions and for their citizens, provided 
their regulations for any of these purposes do not violate the 
prohibitions upon the States to be found in the tenth section of 
the first article of the Constitution.* It is suiRcient for us that 

*"N'o State shall coin money, emit bills of credit, or make anything but 
gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts." 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 549 

the power of Congress over the currency of its own creation 
and regulation is confined to the collection and disbursement 
of the public revenues, and that no branch of the federal gov- 
ernment has the power to make even coin a currency binding 
and obligatory upon the citizens of the several States for any 
other purpose, or to prescribe to them a currency for any other 
uses. 

" If the regulation of the currency within and between the 
States be not within the constitutional power of Congress, it will 
scai'cely be contended that the regulation of the exchanges 
between the commercial cities, a mere use of currency, is con- 
ferred by the power ' to coin money, regulate the value thereof, 
and of foreign coin.' 

" The power of Congress, then, over the currency and domestic 
exchanges of the country, is confined to the collection and dis- 
bursement of the public revenues, and consists in the power to 
prescribe in what currency those revenues shall be received and 
paid out. 

" That the only currency known to the Constitution is a cur- 
rency of intrinsic value, a metallic currency, a currency of coin 
according to the value placed upon it by Congress, is a fact too 
plain for contradiction or question. Congress derives no power, 
from that instrument, to make, to establish or to regulate the 
value of any other currency, nor is anything else recognized 
therein as money. 

"From these facts it results, as the most plain and obvious 
duty of Congress, that he who has a demand against the federal 
government in ' money ' should be paid that demand in money; 
or, if in any other medium of exchange, that that medium, what- 
ever it may be, should be equivalent to ' money,' equivalent to 
coin, as the value thereof is regulated by Congress. 

"The revenues of the federal government are derived directly 
from the people. They pay for the public lands which are pur- 
chased, and they purchase and consume the foreign dutiable goods 
which are imported. From these sources the national revenues 
are received into the treasury, and hence arises another imperious 
duty of every department of the national government, viz. : The 
duty of adopting such measures, in reference to the national 



550 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

finances, as can be adopted consistently with the constitutional 
powers conferred upon them, and are best calculated to furnish 
to the people a solvent, equable and stable currency in which to 
pay those dues and taxes. 

" Duties to the government constitute an ingredient of price in 
the demand of the retailing merchant for imported dutiable mer- 
chandise, and upon those duties, as well as upon the original cost 
of the goods, the consumer has to pay the ordinary mercantile 
profits of the importer, the jobber and the retailer. If, added to 
the duties, there is a discount upon currency, that too must con- 
stitute a new ingredient of price, upon which the same series of 
profits must be added, and all must be paid by the consumer. 
This addition to the intrinsic value of his purchase does not 
confine itself to a single ingredient of the selling price, but 
covers the whole, and is to be added, to that extent, upon every 
and all charges which shall enter into the seller's value. Can 
there, then, be a stronger or more palpable duty of the govern- 
ment, than that, so far as this influence of its action is concerned, 
the consumers of foreign imported merchandise, who are the 
great mass of the people of the country, should be relieved 
from a most formidable tax, in the shape of an extensive depre- 
ciation of the currency first, and of the various mercantile 
profits upon that ingredient next, to the selling prices to the 
consumers ? 

" This view of the subject is strictly applicable to consumers 
of imported dutiable goods, because they must be paid for in a 
medium equivalent to specie, and because the consumer is the 
final payer of all costs and charges, including the duties to the 
government and the losses consequent upon the depreciation of 
currency, if such loss is sustained by any one. 

" The same duty, upon the federal government, is equally 
imperative as to that portion of the public revenue derived from 
the sales of the public lands, from another consideration. The 
lands are the property of the whole people. In the cession of 
them to the United States by the several States, they were 
pledged to meet ' the general charge ' upon the people, and in 
their sale, therefore, every citizen has an interest in the direct 
proportion to his liability to taxation, direct or indirect, to sup- 



Life and Tjmes of Silas Wuianr. 551 

port the government and pay the debts and expenses of the 
nation. The price of the lands is fixed by law at one dollar and 
twenty-five cents per acre, and every acre sold should relieve the 
tax-payers of the country from that amount of charge. I Jul if 
the lauds be sold for a currency depreciated at the rate of leu 
per cent, the people lose one-tenth of their property in the lands 
sold, which loss they must make up to the national treasury by 
direct or indirect taxation. Hence the obligation upon C/ongress 
to protect the currency, so far as it may be within its constitu- 
tional power to do so, is not less, arising from this than the other 
great branch of the public revenue. 

"Another duty, equally imperative upon the government and 
much more interesting and important to the people, is that of a 
paternal guardianship over the rights and interests of the gov- 
erned; and one of the most vital among those rights and interests, 
the protection and preservation, by all the ways and means in its 
power, of the integrity, stability and value of other currency. 
The duties of the government of which we have heretofore 
spoken are partial and limited, and extend only to particular 
interests. This is general, and covers every interest of every citi- 
zen relating to property, whether public or private, local or gen- 
eral. The two former connect themselves immediately with the 
interests and action of the federal government, and the appeal, 
as to them, is more appropriately made under this head. This is 
universal, and therefore addresses itself to all public servants, 
however constituted and under wdiatever government. State or 
national, and by whatever authority they may hold or exercise 
their trusts. 

"That the power exists to require that the currency of the 
national treasury shall be according to the value of the currency 
created and regulated by Congress, under the express grant of 
power contained in the Constitution, no one, we trust, does or 
can doubt. It is the constant and continued and unvaried exer- 
cise of that power which we ask, and nothing more. As one of 
the people, we think we have the right to ask, nay demand, this 
at the hands of our public servants, and we do demand it. The 
direct benefits will be to save us from loss in paying our exac- 
tions to the government and in the sales of our public lands; and 



552 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

the consequential benefits, in the influence to this course on the 
part of Congress will exert upon the legislation of the States and 
upon those who now control our currency through the means of 
the local banks, will be all-sufiicient, at an early day, to restore 
our currency to what it has so lately been and what it ought 
to be. 

"Among the responsibilities of the federal government, that 
of keeping safely the moneys collected from the people, so that 
they may be ready, at the calls of the public treasury, without 
subtraction or depreciation, stands prominent. At periods when 
a proper relation exists between the revenues collected and the 
wants of the government for expenditures, this responsibility 
may be discharged without difficulty or danger; but, when over- 
trading in foreign merchandise, or overspeculation in the public 
lands, swells the sources of revenue greatly beyond the wants of 
the government, it becomes one of great difficulty, delicacy and 
hazard. The evils which destroy the equilibrium tend necessarily 
to impair the safety of the ordinary and natural depositories, the 
banks of the States, and offer temptations to unfaithful guardians, 
should such be selected. 

" Another responsibility resting upon the national government 
is that of guarding and preserving, even beyond the reach of 
just suspicion at home or abroad, the credit of the United States 
as a body politic. This high trust can be but very imperfectly 
discharged, and cannot be discharged at all to the benefit of the 
people, for any length of time, with a disordered and depreciated 
currency sanctioned by its authority. 

" It is important for us to notice but a single provision of the 
law [the Deposit Law of 1836], and that provision is, that no 
bank note shall be received in payment of dues to the govern- 
ment, or paid out in discharge of debts due from the government, 
which is not convertible into gold and silver coin at the will and 
pleasure of the holder. 

"Under this law, with this provision incorporated in it, all the 
existing banks accepted their high trusts to the government and 
people of the country and received some forty millions of the 
public treasure; and yet, strange to tell, before a single twelve- 
month had passed away, they all refuse to pay gold and silver 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 553 

for their notes. ISTay more, and farther and worse, they even 
refuse to pay the government anything but their own irredeem- 
able bank notes, whicli the law above mentioned prohibits the 
oflScers of government from either receiving or paying out, for 
the millions intrusted to their safe-keeping. Still farther: tlie 
drafts of the Treasurer of the United States, drawn upon a de])o- 
sit bank for a mere trust fund, belonging to individual citizens, 
which fund was, by tlie government, imported from abroad in 
gold and silver, and in gold and silver placed in that bank for 
safe-keeping, have been dishonored and returned without pay- 
ment, because the holder of the drafts would not receive the 
irredeemable bills of that bank in satisfaction. 

" What ought Congress to do, is the great question ? Can a 
national bank be resorted to, even if it could remedy the evils 
we suffer? Twice such an institution has been tried, and twice 
have the people pronounced their verdict that it shall not have 
existence within our confederacy; that its powers to produce 
expansions and contractions in the currency, and overtradings, 
speculations, panics and pressures, are much superior to its pow- 
ers to regulate, restrain or sustain our circulating medium; that 
the political dangers and evils arising from it, to the purity and 
stability of our free institutions, far outweigh any promise of 
benefits; that the Constitution of the United States has not 
conferred upon Congress any power to charter such an insti- 
tution, and that no such charter shall emanate from the hands 
of their representatives. The voice in which this last verdict 
was so distinctly and clearly pronounced yet sounds in our 
ears, and warns us against repeating this doubly condemned 
experiment. 

" Shall State banks be further continued as public depositories 
and fiscal agents of the treasury? Shall millions more be 
intrusted to these institutions which refuse to respond for what 
they have received for safe-keeping, except by their own irre- 
deemable and faithless promises to pay ? Shall Congress recede 
from the ground it has taken, that the debts of the nation shall 
be paid in a currency equivalent to specie, at the will of the 
holder? Shall it legalize as currency, and establish as the cir- 
culating medium of the national treasury, the in-edeemable notes 



554 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

of the State banks, and impoi*t gold and silver from other coun- 
tries to be exchanged for such a miserable representative of 
money ? 

"What, then, can Congress do? Try the yet untried expe- 
dient. Produce a perfect and entire separation between the 
finances of the nation and all banks of issue or discount, how- 
ever or by whatever authority existing; between the national 
treasury and those artificial creations of legislation ujDon which 
we have, hitherto, so unfortunately attempted to depend. We 
have tried the faith of these soulless existences, in all their forms 
of being, and that faith has always failed us in the hour of 
utmost need. Now let us try the faith of natural persons, of 
moral, accountable agents, of freemen. Let Congress trust the 
safe-keeping of the public treasure with citizens, as such, and not 
as bank corporators; with men responsible to itself, and not to a 
moneyed institution. Let collections into the national treasury 
be collections of money, or its equivalent, not of irredeemable 
paper; and when the government owes a citizen, let him, for 
that debt, be able to obtain money or its equivalent, and not 
i convertible bank notes. 

" We are told, and no doubt truly, that the connection 
between the public treasury and the banks has aided to pro- 
duce the excesses we now so deeply deplore. Let not the trea- 
sury again contribute its agency to such severe afflictions upon 
the people. When duties are to be paid to the government, let 
them be paid in fact, not practically credited by a system of 
deposit in banks which enables the merchant to withdraw with 
one hand what he places in the bank with the other. If lands 
are sold, let the money paid for them be retained by the govern- 
ment, to which it belongs, until its wants call for its use. 
Explode the mischievous doctrine, now so generally promul- 
gated, that the merchant, or the speculator, have a right to the 
use of every dollar of money in the national treasury; and, when 
overtrading shall unduly increase the revenue from customs, or 
mad speculations swell the amounts received for sales of lands, 
let the accumulations of cash capital in the treasury check these 
excesses, before their bitter fruits are realized, as now, in the 
destruction of credit, the derangement and depreciation of the 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 555 

currency, the depression of property, and the prostriition of l)usi- 

ness generally." 

Note. — In this last paragraph, Mr. "Wright first develops the idea of an 
independent treasury, afterward matured and adopted, under which a dol- 
lar has never been lost, as well as a philosophical and inl'allible mode of 
checking and restraining most etfectually overtradings and speculations in 
the public lands. 

"The Times. — No. 6. 

" The Duties of the State Governments tovmrd the JSanks, being 
institutions of their creation, and over tchich they have Gov- 
ernmental Control. 

" We hope we are not insensible of the delicacy of the discussion 
under our present head. The State Legislatures have chartered 
the existing banks and to them the banks are responsible. We, 
therefore, address bodies where power follows proof, and where 
we hope and believe evils and defects require only to be shown 
to command the remedy. That evils exist all feel and know, and 
that defects exist in the banking system of the States is almost 
necessarily inferable from the present deranged state of the banks 
existing under them. But when an individual citizen assumes to 
speak of defects in existing legislation, or to recommend for 
leo-islative consideration remedies for existing evils, he should 
not speak without reflection, or make even suggestions without 
caution. 

" That our banking system is as wise, as safe and as valuable, 
in every sense, as that of any other State in the Union, we do 
not doubt. That it is fur superior to many, we verily believe. 
Still, when brought into conflict with improvidence and cupidity, 
the present moment shows us how utterly insuflicient it is to 
answer the hopes of its wise founders. When overloaded and 
overworked, it turns out to be, like the banks of issue chartered 
under it, a paper system altogether. The limitations, restrictions 
and responsibilities, upon paper, are all-sufticient, but they no 
more secure a sound and stable currency, in practice, than the 
notes of the banks secure specie payments. 

" What duties, then, are devolved upon otir Legislature in con- 
sequence of the present suspension of our banks and the present 
deranged and depressed state of our currency ? 



556 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

"The first and most essential, in our judgment, is that of 
securing a return by the banks to specie payment at the earliest 
practicable period. Legislation in this State has already inter- 
posed itself between the banks and their liabilities, by granting 
those institutions a respite from their most weighty forfeitures 
for a term of one year. 

" Can they, then, i-esume specie payments in May, 1838, or 
before that time ? If there be banks which were, in fact, insol- 
vent at the time of their suspension, it is not likely that any such 
can resume and sustain specie payments within a twelvemonth 
from that period; nor is it likely that institutions in that condi- 
tion ever can return successfully to the performance of this pri- 
mary duty. 

" Unless other interests than those of the banks and their 
debtors can be interposed, it will be the duty of our next Legis- 
lature, wholly unavoidable, to require the banks to return to 
specie payments within the limitation of the j^resent suspension 
law, or a forfeiture of their charters in pursuance of the terms of 
their contract with the public. The currency must be restored 
to a sound and stable state as soon as justice will permit, and, if 
we have not labored in vain, we have shown that neither justice 
to the creditors of the banks, nor to the whole public, will 
authorize a further suspension. 

" As a first step, to give greater stability and security to our 
State banks, and consequently to our paper currency, the securing 
a much broader specie basis than any we have enjoyed, will 
strike all as indispensable. This can only be done, in our judg- 
ment, consistently with the preservation of our banking system, 
by a prohibition of small bank-notes and the consequent circula- 
tion of the precious metals as the currency for change in the 
small transactions of the community. Our present law, prohib- 
iting the issue and circulation by our banks of all notes of a less 
denomination than five dollars, is a first step in this policy. 

" We shall, and do now, call upon our representatives in every 
situation to mark, carefully and closely, the action of events, and 
to adopt such measures as shall secure the great result — a basis 
of gold and silver in circulation among the people upon which 
the broad and high superstructure of our paper currency can 



Life and Tuies of Silas Weight. 557 

safely rest. Reverses, such as that under which we now suffer, 
cannot and ought not to be endured, and the preventive, for the 
future, must and shoukl be certain and effectual. 

"And we further say, that that safety cannot be given to our 
system without an increased specie basis, and that that specie 
basis cannot be secured and the system itself preserved without 
a firm and constant adherence to and perseverance in the policy 
of suppressing small notes for circulation and the substitution of 
the precious metals as the currency for the common and ordinary 
transactions of business. 

" The developments of the last year authorize the apprehension 
that the capitals of some of our banks, most recently chartered, 
have been unreal in fact and little better as security to the i)ublic 
than the old exploded stock-note system. We allude to the 
practice of hypothecating the stock of one bank as security for 
loans made from another ; thus, in effect, so far as the security 
to the public is concerned, sinking so much of the capital of the 
one institution in that of another. The annual rejjorts of our 
Bank Commissioners show the existence and extent of this prac- 
tice, and prove that millions of the nominal banking capital of 
the State are swallowed up in the mere ordinary bank credits. 
We also alhide to a practice, said to prevail to a much greater 
extent than the former, of making loans to stockholders of new 
banks, at a very early day, if not at the very first meeting of the 
board of directors, for discounts in sums measured exactly by 
their subscriptions and payments for the stock they held in the 
bank. So far as this practice may prevail, no one can fail to see 
that the capital of the bank is gone whence it came, and that the 
note of the stockholder is all that remains as a basis for the cir- 
culation of the bills of the bank loaned to him. 

"As requirement of law, that each bank should make investments 
of its capital stock paid in in public stocks issued by the federal 
government, or some one of the States, or in bonds and mort- 
gages upon unincumbered real estate, at a rate of valuation which 
should be safe against any contingency, would obviate these evil 
practices, and give to the public a security against future loss, 
which is the promise, but not the operation, of the present laws 
to give. 



558 LiFiJ AND Times oii Silas Wiiidnr. 

"In connection with this subject we suggest an entire pi'ohibi- 
tion against loans by any bank to its directors, and a very guarded, 
if not entire j)rohibition, of loans by a bank to its stockholders. 
Tlie legal intendment is that he who takes bank stock has money 
to lend and prefers this mode of investment ; and not that he is 
a money borrower, and wishes to acquire a pawn wliich can com- 
[)el loans to such an extent, beyond liis cash means, as his neces- 
sities or convenience may require. Why not, then, make tliis 
intendment law and practice, and thus place our banks in hands 
which shall have no other interest in their manaajeraent than that 
of the profits to be derived from investments in their stocks ? 

" Connected with these suggestions it is well worthy of con- 
sideration of our legislators whether the power given to our 
banks to contract debts and incur liabilities of any description, is 
not, as a whole, more extensive than can be consistent with the 
perfect security of the institutions themselves, and consequently 
witli the safety of the public and the currency. That the banks 
have incurred liabilities beyond their power to meet, according 
to the terms of their promises, is confessed and declared by them- 
selves ; and will it not be wise, for the future, more narrowly to 
limit that discretion which has once led to error and injury and 
loss ? 

"As immediately connected with this branch of the subject, 
we have a word to say as to the duty of our future legislatures 
in granting new banks. That grants have hitherto been too 
numerously made we suppose will not be denied by any indi- 
vidual or any interest. That banks have been, heretofore, granted 
for objects not properly calling for the aid of banks must also be 
admitted, because it is impossible that the business properly 
entitled to bank accommodations should not be able to sustain 
the banks granting these accommodations, during a period of 
national peace and unrivaled prosperity. Here, then, is an evil 
to be remedied addressing itself peculiarly and exclusively to the 
Legislature. Let no bank be granted where there shall not be 
demonstrative proof that the interests of trade and commerce 
require increased bank facilities. Let those proofs, and not the 
interests and anxieties of personal applicants, govern the action 
of our legislators. Let the novel doctrine that banks are to be 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 559 

chartered in different sections and counties in the State upon the 
basis of territory, popuhxtion and representation, be wholly dis- 
carded, as unsound and dangerous. Let the substanti.-il wealth 
and description of business of the population for which a, hank 
is asked determine the propriety of the application, and not llie 
price of real estate, of city or village lots, or the extent of vision- 
ary speculations prevalent at the point of proposed location. 
Above all, let the least evidence of an attempt, on the })art of the 
applicants of a bank, to gain legislative votes for it by combin- 
ing it with any other measure whatsoever depending, oi' to come, 
before the body, be proof conclusive of want of merit in the 
application, and want of integrity in the applicants, either of 
which should secure for it prompt rejection." 

"The Times.— No. 1. 

" llie Duties of the People in reference to tlieir Governments, 
State and National, as the Constitutional Poioer to Correct 
Abuses in either, to Defend their own Interests, and to Secure 
to. themselves and their posterity Equal Justice, Public Liberty, 
and the liiyhts of Private Property. 

"Under this head we address the fountain of power, under our 
system of government, the sovereignty of our republic. With- 
out the aid, and countenance, and support of that sovereignty, 
neither legislators, nor any other class of public servants, can 
perform the high duties which the crisis demands. Without the 
advice and direction of the sovereign people they may mistake 
those duties, and fall into honest but not less fatal errors. It is 
the duty of a free people, therefore, upon all great emergencies, 
to advise and direct their agents, to make manifest to them their 
interests and wishes, and to sustain those who labor to do then- 
will. 

" The present time makes this loud call upon the people of the 
United States. A period of apparent prosperity, such as no 
nation ever experienced, is almost instantly succeeded by depres- 
sion, mercantile embarrassment, and a derangement of our cur- 
rency more extensive and universal than any former example 
furnished in our history. Why has such a consequence followed 
such appearances ? Has the period of prosperity been merely 



560 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

apparent, artificial and unreal? Or, has a period of real plenty 
and prosperity been improved by the artful and designing to 
inflate business, and confidence, and credit, until one of the rich- 
est blessings which a kind Providence showers upon a nation has 
been perverted and made to minister to the most disastrous con- 
sequences? If either position implied in these inquiries be cor- 
rect, by what immediate agency has the false bubble been inflated 
and distended, until its bursting has given a shock to business, 
and confidence, and credit, as sudden as the motion of the elec- 
tric fluid in a commotion of the elements, and as terrible as the 
earthquake to the planet we inhabit? Is there a doubt that State 
legislation has given existence to this agency, and that the all- 
powerful agent is the State banks, to which has been intrusted, 
not the regulation only, but the practical making of the eurrency 
of our country ? To us it seems no one can doubt this position. 
" The State Legislatures have chartered banks that they might 
serve and advance, not injure and retard, the great pecuniary 
interests of society. They have conferred upon them their 
extensive and exclusive privileges, not for those who hold the 
stock and the management of these institutions to make them 
more profitable to themselves, but that they might be more use- 
ful to the public, more safe in their operations, and consequently 
better able to sustain against all contingencies that currency 
which they are authorized to furnish for the uses of the people. 
How is it, then, that these wise and just intentions are so often 
disappointed ? Why are State banks so often surrounded with 
embarrassments, unable to meet their responsibilities, — indeed, 
wholly and desperately insolvent ? Why are portions of our 
currency so often found discredited, depreciated and finally 
valueless ? And why, at too short intervals, do we find the 
whole mass of our paper money deranged, depreciated and 
inconvertible? Are these evils innate and inherent in the bank- 
ing system, or are they defects in the regulations of law which 
govern banking in our country ? We know that there are many 
who suppose these fluctuations, evils and losses are inseparable 
from, and irremediable in, the paper system; but we have hoped, 
and still do hope, that this opinion is founded in error. We know 
that all former experience has countenanced it; but we believe 



Life and Thies of Silas Wright. 5(31 

tLat, in all former time, the interests of bankers, of stockholders, 
of borrowers, have predominated over the interests and safety of 
the community, in our legislation upon banks and banking. We 
know that the former class of interests are private, personal and 
direct, and that they are always exerted upon the legislative 
body with their full force and effect; while we also know that 
the latter are left to the good sense, careful remembrance and 
unbiased integrity of each public agent who has a vote to give, 
or a voice to express, in this part of our legislation. 

" If fault be here, it is the fault of the people themselves. The 
negligence is theirs, and the loss, injury and suffering is upon 
them. They have left their public servants without advice, 
without the expression of their wishes, without instruction, open 
to the influence, exerted in season and out of season, of the inte- 
rests in conflict with those of the public generally, and are not 
roused until the consequences of their want of vigilance are 
visited upon themselves and their dearest and deepest interests. 

" This is emphatically that time, and what are now the duties 
of the people ? We answer, 

"1. To see that, in our future legislation upon this great sub- 
ject, tlie interests of the public and the safety of the currency 
are made paramount to the private interests connected with the 
banks. 

" This duty can only be discharged by an awakened attention, 
on the part of the people, to their deep interest in the circulating 
medium of the country ; in the equivalent for which they exchange 
their labor, the products of their labor, their farms and their 
shops ; in that article of property which they receive as money, 
upon which, as property, they place the highest estimate, and 
which, with all business men, is the end and aim of industry, of 
economy, of exertion and of enterprise in the things of this 
world. That medium of exchange with us is principally furnished 
by the State banks, and upon them, by our laws, rests its sta- 
bility, value and character. The interests of the people, there- 
fore, in these institutions, their soundness and action, are equal 
to their interests in their currency, in their circulating medium 
of exchange. The banks exist at the will of the people and 
through the direct agency of their representatives, and without 
36 



562 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

this Avill and this agency they could have no existence. The 
privileges granted to them are a portion of the privileges and 
sovereignty of the people, and those privileges, so far as they are 
ever correctly granted, are parted with for the public benefit, and 
that only. The interests of the stockholders and managers of 
the banks, resulting from their business transactions, are merely 
consequential and secondary, and, in the theory of incorporated 
banking, rightly understood, form no part of the consideration 
for the charter of a bank, 

" Still, we apprehend that here rests one of the greatest errors 
in the practice of banking in the States, The great public inte- 
rests involved are lost sight of, while the interests, wishes and 
solic'.tations of the corporators are permitted to command not 
only the representative action, but, by way of inconsiderate 
petition, the popular voice also. Hence, banks have been soli- 
cited and granted, in the various States, merely to accommodate 
local and personal and private interests, where there was not, 
even a pretense, that the great interests of trade and commerce, 
or of a sound and solvent medium of exchange, required such 
institutions, 

"The revulsion necessarily consequent upon legislation by 
such a standard is now oppressing the country, and an irredeem- 
able currency, fearfully expanded, is one of the fruits of the 
policy wl:\ich all feel and deplore. The remedy, and the only 
remedy, for this great evil is with the people. 

"But let the people express their will; let them advise their 
public servants; let them pronounce their interests in a sound 
and valuable currency, and their determination, at any sacrifice, 
to possess and enjoy it; let them instruct their representatives; 
let them command the legislation which their rights, the pros- 
perity of the country and the credit of the nation demand, and 
the incipient steps toward a remedy for existing evils in our 
monetary affairs will have been effectually taken. Let this course, 
on the part of the people, be followed up by a careful scrutiny 
upon the conduct of all their public servants, especially their 
representatives in the State and national Legislatures. Let their 
every vote and action in reference to the currency and our mone- 
tary system be marked, its tendency strictly scrutinized, and the 



Ltpe and TniEs of Silas Wright. 503 

reasons and motives for it be demanded, examini'd and justly 
estimated. * * In this way, and this way only, will an 
ascendancy be given to public over private interests growing out 
of our banking system. 

" 2. To see that no further unnecessary and improvident addi- 
tions be made to our banking capital, and consequently to our 
already too greatly expanded currency. 

"The discharge of this duty is most imperious, and had it 
been firmly discharged years gone by, we have every reason to 
believe that the country would not have experienced its present 
sad reverse. * * * Let the legislative combinations which 
have become so common, and have been, of late, so openly 
avowed, be entirely broken up. 

" We know that our remarks may be supposed to cast impu- 
tations upon those who have represented the people in our legis- 
lative assemblies. We make no personal allusions, nor have we, 
even in our minds, the name of any individual to whom we would 
make the personal application; but so palpable to the whole pub- 
lic sense has the influence of these combinations been, upon a 
variety of occasions, and never more than in the legislation of 
1836, when more than |6,000,000 were added to our banking 
capital, that it becomes a duty on our part to warn the people 
against them, and to arouse them to a watchfulness and scrutiny, 
in regard to the individual and separate acts of their representa- 
tives, which will prove a speedy corrective against these baneful 
effects for the future. 

" 3. To enforce such remedies for the defects in our present 
banking system as shall sustain the public credit, protect the 
public interests, restore the currency to a specie value and 
give stability, infuse a greater portion of the precious metals 
into the circulating medium of the country, and restrain the 
action of the existing banks within the limits of prudence and 

safety. 

" 4. To protect our political institutions from the influence of, 
and from all unnecessary connection with, moneyed institutions. 
State or national, and from the dangers which accumulations of 
capital, with incorporated banking powers, and a control over the 
currency of the country, must always present to the rights of 



564 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

private property, to the purity of our elections and to public 
liberty. 

" When a concentrated movement of local banks has prostrated 
our currency, can any one expect that the people will consent to 
shut their eyes to the fact ? When that same vigilant opposition 
which, one year ago, was taunting us with a denial of justice in 
not granting more banks, is now charging upon us the multiplica- 
tion of banks to the ruin of the business and credit and currency 
of the country, can any one expect that republicans will be silent 
and not avow and defend their j^rinciples ? When the dangers 
to property and to liberty, threatened from the influence of a 
great national bank, have but just been eradicated by the people, 
does any one expect that the same people will sit tamely by and 
see one of the most serious of those threatened evils inflicted by 
a combination of banks, without an expression of their feelings '? 

" The existence of an individual aristocracy in this country is 
rendered impossible by the abolition, by the States, of the laws 
of entails and primogeniture, and nothing but an aristocracy of 
wealth, based upon a legal corporate existence, can ever return 
that aflliction upon our beloved country. Against that the people 
must guard with a sleepless vigilance, equal to that which was 
exercised by our fathers in the achievement of our freedom ; and 
if the time shall ever come when a political party shall rise up 
and be successful in our country, whose principles shall be found 
in a bank charter, or in the charter of any other corporate money 
power, then may we class our government with the most dangerous 
aristocracies lapon the earth ; then may our people cease to boast 
of their freedom, of the purity of their institutions, of their elec- 
tive fi-anchise, or of their rights of property, and be content to 
fatten upon the humble boons which corporate wealth shall in 
mercy grant, whether those boons shall be presented in the miti- 
gated form of an irredeemable paper currency, or the more severe 
aspect of menial service in a manufactory or on a manor. 

" We must be distinctly understood in these remarks. We do 
not intend by them to invoke prejudice against the existing 
banking institutions. We have already said that their conduct 
should control their standing in the public estimation ; that those 
which present, by their management, satisfactory evidence of a 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 565 

disposition to return to a practical and faithful discharge of tlicir 
whole duties to the public should be aided by public contidoiice; 
and that all should be sustained in the full enjoyment of all their 
existing legal rights. These sentiments we cheerfully repeat, 
and, so far as our humble voice is concerned, we entreat their 
full and strict observance from the people ; and it is only in 
reference to a system of corporate authorities, corporate exemp- 
tions and corporate wealth, and to the existence of a political 
party in this country, founded upon such a system, whether 
denominated State or national, local or general, ' credit system,' 
or ' American system,' that we apply the remarks in our last 
paragraph." 



566 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter LXIII. 

POSTPONING THE FOURTH INSTALLMENT OF THE DEPOSITS 

WITH THE STATES. 

In the spring of 1837, nearly all the banks in the United 
States, as if by concert, suspended specie payments. The 
deposit banks failed to keep their plighted faith toward 
the government, and were unable or unwilling to meet 
their obligations. The whole amount in the treasury on 
the 1st day of January, 1837, over and above the five 
millions to be retained there under the distribution act of 
1836, was $37,468,859.97, of which three installments, 
amounting to $28,101,644, had been paid over to the States, 
and the fourth, of $9,367,213.24, was soon to become pay- 
able. Public policy forbid this being done. At the 
special session of Congress Mr. Wright reported a bill 
to postpone paying over this installment. This was taken 
up for consideration on the 14th of September, 1837, and 
its immediate passage strongly urged by Mr. Weight, 
who addressed the Senate on its merits as follows : 

" ]\[r. Wright said it might become him to say a few words in 
relation to the bill before the Senate. His position in i-eference 
to this and other bills, perhaps, required him to do so. He 
would, however, confine himself strictly to the present subject, 
and to the most brief justification of his own course, and that of 
the majority of the Committee on Finance, who had concurred 
with him in reporting the bill. 

"Immediately upon the appointmen': of the committee, and the 
reference to it of the important subjects treated of in the message 
of the President and the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
the committee found that the treasury of the United States was 
very soon to be in want of means to meet the current demands 
upon it, without regard to any further transfer to the States. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 567 

They also found that this fourth installment of the deposits witli 
the States was to become payable on the first day of October, and 
amounted to about nine and one-third millions of dollars. 

"The state of the treasury, as developed by tlic report of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, was, as he now recollected, and he 
thought he could not be materially mistaken, that, at the lime 
when the statement appended to that report was made up, about 
the first day of the present month (lie believed the exact date 
was the twenty-eighth of August), there was in the treasury, sub- 
ject to draft, available and unavailable, but eight millions one 
hundred and some odd thousand dollars. The report was 
printed, and upon the table of every Senator, and would verify 
his correctness in this particular. This amount was exclusive of 
the sums already deposited with the States, being some twenty- 
eight millions. 

" To arrive at what would be the condition of the treasury on 
the first of October, the expenses of the present month, which, 
from drafts already made and anticipated, were estimated at 
about two and a half millions, must be deducted from the eight 
millions one hundred and odd thousands ; thus leaving in the 
treasury, subject to draft, on the first day of October, less tliau 
six millions, without the transfer of a dollar to the States toward 
the October installment. This, too, included all the funds in the 
treasury subject to draft for payments or transfers to the States, 
whether available or not, upon the drafts of the Treasurer; the 
funds on deposit with the States not being taken into the compu- 
tation. 

" If, then, the October installment was to be transferred to the 
States, all the means in the treasury, of all descriptions, on the 
day when that installment was by the deposit law made trans- 
ferable, would not be equal to two-thirds of the amount, and 
money must be borrowed, upon the credit of the United States, 
to supply the deficiency. 

"Another and stronger view, however, was presented to the 
committee by the head of the Treasury department. The larg- 
est portion of the funds in the treasury at present, and wliicli 
would remain there on the first of October, were wholly unavad-- 
able upon the drafts of the Treasurer. They were in the western 



568 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

and south-western banks ; and experience had already shown 
that the drafts of the Treasurer upon these banks would not 
be received in payment by the public creditors. It was equally 
proved that the States, other than those in which the banks were 
located, would not take those drafts and give their obligations 
for a repayment of the amount in money, in pursuance of the 
provisions of the deposit law. The transfer to the States, there- 
fore, could not be made, even to the amount of the funds in the 
treasury subject to draft, by reason of the character of the funds 
to be drawn upon ; and, if to be made, a loan, to a much greater 
amount than the deficiency of those funds upon paper, would be 
rendered indispensable, from the unavailable condition of these 
funds. 

" Still, it would be seen by the Senate that this disjiosition of 
the funds in the treasury, and of the public ci-edit, would leave 
the treasury without a dollar to answer the current demands 
upon it. The appropriations for the year were large, almost 
beyond example, and the current calls upon the public treasury 
must be measured by them. Hence it had been an object of 
primary intei'est with the Secretary to devise the means for carry- 
ing on the government and fulfilling its obligations to the public 
creditors; and in reaching that object he had, as he, Mr. W., con- 
sidered, wisely and properly suspended his efforts to make this 
last transfer to the States. In pursuance of this necessity, he 
had told Congress, in his printed report, that he should make no 
movements toward the accomplishment of that object until the 
action of Congress should signify its will that that transfer should 
still be made, and should provide the means for making it. These 
facts and conclusions were fully before the committee. 

" It then became necessary for tliem to see what would be 
the state of the public treasury, upon the supposition that the 
October installment of the deposit with the States should be with- 
held. In prosecuting that inquiry, they found that the funds in 
the treasury, subject to draft, were to so great an extent unavail- 
able that it would be indispensably necessary to resort to the use 
of the credit of the government, in some form, to anticipate the 
practical use of the unavailable portions of those funds, for the 
pui'pose of current payments. 



Life and Tuies of Bilas Wright. 569 

"At this stage of the inquiry, two other important intei-ests, 
both public and private in their cliaracter, pressed themselves 
upon the attention of the committee. In any settlement with 
the late deposit banks which should have proper regard to the 
present deranged and depressed state of the business of the 
country, and to the security of the public moneys yet remainiiii;- 
in their possession, the committee were forced to the conclusion 
that indulgence to these institutions, beyond their legal liabilities, 
was indispensable. The conclusions of the committee upon this 
point had been embodied in the shape of a bill, which Avas now 
before the Senate in a printed form. The other great interest to 
which he referred was a similar indulgence upon the revenue 
bonds. There, also, the committee had reported a bill, which 
was before the body. In both cases, the least indulgence had 
been proposed which the committee believed to be consistent 
with the great private interests of the community or the security 
of the public property involved. They had been induced to 
believe that the time granted to the banks was the least which 
would enable them to meet the payments in the manner required 
by law, and that any dependence upon a more speedy collection 
of the merchants' bonds would result in disappointment to the 
public treasury, and a consequent failure to pay- the public 
creditors. 

" It being assumed that Congress would agree with the com- 
mittee in these conclusions, and that these bills would meet with 
approbation, what, then, would be the state of the treasury with 
reference to a transfer of the October installment to the States ? 

" Mr. W. said he understood the estimates of the department 
to be, that without these indulgences to the banks and the mer- 
chants, and with the postponement of the October installment of 
the transfer to the States, the whole means in the treasury might 
be adequate to its wants, in case Congress should be willing to 
grant the use of the public credit temporarily, that that portion 
of the funds which was at present unavailable might be brought 
into practical use, until time should render them available for 
the redemption of that credit. If those indulgences should be 
granted, then the use of the public credit would be required 
beyond the current year, because material portions of the existing 



570 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

means, and of the otherwise accruing revenue, would be placed 
witliout the reach or control of the treasury for more than that 

period. 

" Upon these calculations and hypotheses the bills of the com- 
mittee had been framed, and it was now his duty to give these 
facts and conclusions practical application to the measure under 
discussion, 

" This was a bill to postpone the October installment of the 
transfer to the States. If he had been correct in his statements, 
and had made himself intelligible to the Senate, it would be seen 
that nothing existed in the treasury out of which this transfer 
could be made, and that nothing within its power could enable it 
to make it without the aid of Congress. It would also be seen 
that the whole means of the treasury were inadequate to meet the 
current calls upon it, without the temporary aid of the credit of 
the nation; and that, if a reasonable indulgence were granted to 
public debtors (such as the condition of the country and the secu- 
rity of eventual collections seemed to demand), the use of that 
credit must extend beyond the current year, and could, at best, 
be only eventually met and redeemed by the means of the 
treasury, existing or in prospect, without a further transfer to 
the States. 

" In view of these facts, Mr. W. said his own mind had been 
brought to this simple and plain conclusion: that the United 
States had no longer any moneys to be safely kept by the States; 
that if the October installment of the transfer, provided for by 
the deposit law of 1836, was made, the means to make it must be 
borrowed upon the credit of the United States, and that Con- 
gress must place itself in the singular position of using the public 
credit to borrow money, merely that it might be safely kept by 
the States when it was obtained. He understood these provi- 
sions of the deposit law, upon their face, to be mere j^rovisions 
for the safe-keeping of the public money. He understood this to 
be the object of those who advocated and supported that law at 
the time of its passage. In that sense he was disposed to regard 
it now; and he did not, therefore, view it as creating any claim in 
favor of the States, or as imposing any debt upon the United 
States, If, therefore, we were called upon to borrow money to 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 571 

fulfill the provisions of that law, lie could only view it in the 
light of a call upon us to borrow money, merely that it miorht 
be safely kept when so borrowed. He had not felt, and could 
not feel himself authorized to recommend a loan upon the credit 
of the nation for such a purpose. He believed he spoke the sen- 
timents of those of his colleagues upon the connnittee, when lie 
said that these were the views which had actuated him and tlicni 
in consenting to report this bill. 

" Mr. W. said he owed it to himself to say that lie had felt most 
sensildy the remarks of the honorable Senator from Massachu- 
setts [Mr. Webster] as to the inconveniences and disappointments 
which must o-row out of withholding the transfer of this install- 
ment to the States. With a much less knowlege of tlie varied 
business and pecuniary affairs of our extended country than that 
distinguished Senator, he had not been insensible to these consid- 
erations. The course pursued by his own State, in the disposi- 
tion of this money, had compelled him to be awake to them. 
The law of his State for the investment of its portion of this 
money had placed the matter even beyond its control, and had 
compelled its chief fiscal orticer, long since, to announce to its 
citizens that this installment would be paid from the treasury of 
the State, whatever might be the action of Congress upon the 
subject. This would, beyond doubt, be done; and those who sent 
him here, and whom it was his duty and desire faithfully to repre- 
sent, should this bill pass, would be compelled to indemnify, from 
their own public funds, the individuals interested as borrowers 
of these moneys, against disappointment, damage or loss, from 
the action of Congress. Yet, under these delicate and difiicult 
circumstances, he had not been able to convince himself that he 
could properly do otherwise than to support the bill. He owed 
a high duty to those constituents, but he owed, in his estimation, 
a hio-her to the nation and to the Constitution of his country. 
He could not think that the power granted to Congress to borrow 
money upon the credit of the United States could be properly 
exercised for the mere purpose of raising money to be safely 
kept; and this he must consider the simple question presented. 
He mio-ht be mistaken in this view of the matter; but such was 
the deliberate conclusion of his mind, upon the most mature 



572 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

reflection, and that conclusion must govern his action upon the 
bill, as it had done his action as a member of the committee 
which reported it. 

" Having said thus much, Mr. W. said, he would only correct 
two or three errors of fact into which the honorable Senator who 
had just resumed his seat [Mr. Webster] seemed to him to have 
fallen, and he would detain the Senate no longer. 

" The honorable Senator seemed to suppose that the means to 
make this transfer to the States were in the treasury, and that the 
only difficulty, separate from the other demands upon it, grew out 
of the present unavailable character of those means. The state- 
ments he had already made had shown the error of this hypothe- 
sis. He had already shown that the whole means in the treasury, 
even when the Secretary of the Treasury made his report, at the 
commencement of our present session, of whatever character, 
whether available or not, were less, by more than a million of 
dollars, than the installment required to be transferred to the 
States under the deposit law. He had further shown that those 
means, such as they were, were, before the first of October, when 
that transfer was required to be made, to be still further dimin- 
ished by the whole expenses of the government for the present 
month, ascertained and estimated to amount to two and a half 
millions of dollars. Hence it would follow that the whole means 
in the treasury, on the first day of October next, must be from 
three and a half to four millions less than the transfer required. 
It was in vain, therefore, Mr. W. said, to escape from the conclu- 
sion that, if Congress should insist upon this transfer, it must 
authorize a loan of money upon the public credit, to enable the 
treasury to make it; in other words, that it must authorize 
a loan of money upon the credit of the United States, that 
that money, when loaned, may be deposited with the States for 
safe-keeping. 

"Another error of the honorable Senator [Mr. Webster], which 
he felt bound to correct, was in his strictures upon the recom- 
mendations of the Secretary of the Treasury as to the manner 
of issuing treasury notes. The honorable Senator had criticised 
this part of the rej^ort of the Secretary of the Treasury with 
some severity, and had held him up to the Senate and the country 



Life and Times of Silas Wriurt. 573 

as striking out a new path for the supply of the treasury ; as 
recommending the issue of paper money ; of a description of 
paper simihir to that which we know by the denomination kI' 
'continental money ;' and of doing this for the tirst time since the 
organization of the government under the Constitution. The 
fault complained of consisted in a recommendation, merely dis- 
cretionary and alternative, to issue treasury notes bearing no 
interest, and payable to the bearer, in the case the public erudi- 
tors should be found willing to i-eceive such notes in payment of 
their demands against the government, at par; otherwise to give 
the notes such an interest as would bring them to par. 

"Mr. W. said, as the committee, in the bill they lunl reported, 
had not followed this recommendation of the Secretary, it would 
be seen that no question was depending before the Senate, either 
in the bill now under discussion or in any other, whirh renderc<l 
this point material ; but he was sure his object would be fully 
understood and appreciated in making this correction. Tt was 
simply to defend this public officer against a mistaken accusation. 
It was not necessary for him to defend, at this time, the sound- 
ness of the recommendation, but to protect the Secretary against 
the charge of being the author of a principle now supposed to 
be so new and dangerous. To do this, it was only necessary for 
him to read the third section of the act of the 24th of February, 
1815, authorizing an emission of treasury notes, in which all these 
dangers would be found to be embraced, adopted and made 
imperative, as a part of laws of the land. 

"Mr. W. here read the section of the act as follows: 
" ' Sec. 3. Aiid he it fwrtJier enacted, That the said treasury notes shall be 
prei)ared of such denominations as the Secretary of the Treasury, with the 
approbation of the President of the United States, sliall, from time to time, 
direct ; and such of the said notes as shall be of a denomination less than 
one hundred dollars shall be payable to bearer, and be tramferaUe by delivei-y 
alone, and shall bear no interest; and such of said notes" as shall be of tlie 
denomination of one hundred dollars, or upwards, may be made payable to 
order, and transferable by delivery and assignment, indorsed on the same, 
and bearing an interest from the day on which they shall be issued, at the 
rate of five and two-fifths per centum per annum; or they may be made 
payable to bearer, and transferable by delioery alone, and bearing no interest, as 
the Secretary of the Treasury, with the approbation of the President of the 
United States, shall direct.' 



574 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" What now, Mr. W. asked, was the condition and the fault 
of the Secretary ? He had found the public treasury in want of 
means to pay the public creditors. The exigency had grown out 
of a reverse in trade and business, sudden and universal, and the 
use of the credit of the government, in some form, seemed to him 
indispensable. It became his duty to suggest to Congress the 
means and the mode of supplying the treasury. He examined 
the legislative history of the government in former cases of 
embarrassment at the treasury, and found, among other expe- 
dients, that emissions of treasury notes paying no interest, pay- 
able to bearer, transferable by delivery alone, and without any 
restriction as to the denomination of the notes to be so issued, 
had been authorized. Among a variety of plans to meet the 
])resent wants, he suggested this, recommending that no note 
should be issued for a less amount than twenty dollars. Had he 
attempted to introduce any new principle ? Certainly not. Was 
his conduct, in making this suggestion in conformity with the 
previous practice of Congress itself, deserving of the high censure 
which had been bestowed upon it ? He, Mr. W., thought not. 

" A single other reply to the honorable Senator. That gentle- 
man had supposed the President most inconsistent and contradic- 
tory Avith himself, in remarking generally, in his message, that 
he did not recommend to Conscress measures for the res^ulation 
of the general currency of the country, or of the foreign and 
domestic exchanges, because he could not find in the Constitu- 
tion any power conferred upon Congress to regulate these mat- 
ters ; and then, in the same message, recommending a bankrupt 
law, as applicable to banks and bankers. Where was the incon- 
sistency or contradiction ? The President had said he omitted 
to make further recommendations upon these subjects than those 
found in the message, because he could not find, and did not 
believe, that Congress possessed further power over them ; but 
lie did recommend a bankrupt law, because the power to pass 
bankrupt laws is conferred upon Congress by the Constitution, 
in express terms. He did, therefore, recommend a bankrupt 
hiw, which the Constitution authorizes, and he did not recom- 
mend anything else upon these points, because the Constitution 
authorizes Congress to do nothing else. Is this inconsistent ? " 



Life and Times of Silas Wbight. 575 

This bill passed the Senate by ayes 27, nays 18, and 
was sent to the House, where it was passed by a votf of 
119 to 117, and, being signed by the President 011 llui 
second of October, it became a law. This installment, in 
consequence of future legislation, has never been paid 
over to the States. 

A proviso to this bill declared "that the three first 
installments under the [original] deposit act shall remain 
on deposit with the States until otherwise directed by 
Congress." Without this proviso, the bill would not 
have passed the House. Congress has never directed the 
States to be called upon, by the executive or otherwise, 
to repay the money they received from the treasury, and 
doubtless never will. The original act was an undis- 
guised attempt by Congress to buy up the States with 
the money constitutionally collected by the federal gov- 
ernment for its own legitimate support. Calling this dis- 
tribution a "deposit," was adding a false pretense to an 
unconstitutional proceeding. This was Mr. Wright's 
opinion, and that of the author then and now, and botli 
voted in conformity with such opinions. Many of the 
friends of Mr. Van Buren voted for it, to prevent his 
being prejudiced b}^ a measure which his enemies thought 
would be so poj)ular as to sweep him overboard and defeat 
him entirely. Although an ardent supporter of Mr. Van 
Buren, Mr. Weight, without regard to consequences, 
deemed it his duty to vote against this bill, because it 
contained this distribution provision, which he deemed a 
violation of the Constitution. 



576 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter LXIV. 

THE CONSTITUTIONAL TREASURY. 

It is a remarkable fact that, for the first lifty-one years 
of the federal government, we had no actual treasury, 
although we had a Treasury department and a Treasurer. 
It was not until the 4th of July, 1840, that rooms, with 
vaults and safes, were provided in the treasury building 
for the safe-keeping of the public moneys. The law com- 
monl}^ called "the sub-treasury act," was entitled "An 
act for the collection, safe-keeping, transfer and disburse- 
ment of the public moneys," lived but one year and nine 
days, wlien it fell a victim of partisan legislation in Pre- 
sident Tyler' s time, with the expectation that a new Bank 
of the United States would take its place. But in this 
those who repealed this act were disappointed ; Mr. Tyler 
killing the then j)ending bill, chartering a bank, with a 
veto. Prior to 1840, the revenues of the government had 
been almost exclusively intrusted to banks, through 
which they were disbursed. The failure to redeem their 
bills by every one of the selected deposit banks, in 1837, 
rendered it the imperative duty of Congress to provide, 
through the officers of the government, for the collection, 
safe-keeping and disbursement of the public moneys. 
The public mind was turned in this direction and em- 
ployed in devising the best and safest means of accom- 
plishing tills object. IS'umerous plans were devised, 
many of which were made public, all of which were more 
or less defective. Mr. Wright, then distinguished for 
his clear perceptions and practical knowledge on such 
subjects, elaborated a plan to accomplish this immensely 
important subject. His views were fully communicated 



Life and Times of 8ilas Wright. 577 

to President Van Buren, wliose message at the special 
session, September 4, 1837, contained the following sug- 
gestions on this subject. Referring to the condition of 
the banks and the prostration of credit and the mode of 
keeping the public money, he said : 

"The present and visible effect of these circumstances on tlie 
operations of the government, and on the industry of the people, 
point out the objects which call for your immediate attention. 

" They are, to regulate by law tlie safe-keeping, transfer and 
disbursement of the public moneys; to designate the funds to be 
received and paid by the government, to enable the treasury to 
meet promptly every demand upon it; to prescribe the tei'ms of 
indulgence, and the mode of settlement to be adopted, as well 
in collecting from individuals the revenue that has accrued, as 
in Avithdrawing it from former depositories; and to devise and 
adopt such future measures, within the constitutional compe- 
tency of Congress, as will be best calculated to revive the enter- 
prise and promote the prosperity of the country. 

"P'or the deposit, transfer and disbursement of the revenue, 
national and State banlis have always, with temporaiy and lim- 
ited exceptions, been heretofore employed; but, although advo- 
cates of each system are still to be found, it is apparent that the 
events of the last few months have greatly augmented the desire, 
long existing among the people of the United States, to separate 
ihe fiscal concerns of the government from those of individuals 
and corporations," 

At that time Mr. Weight was chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Finance of the Senate, and prepared and 
reported a bill to carry out the views presented by the 
President in his message. As reported, it authorized 
the receiving and paying out of bills of specie-paying 
banks, to which Mr. Calhoun objected; and, at his 
instance, Mr. Weight assented to striking out this pro- 
vision. The bill was fully and ably debated. On the 2d 
of October, 1837, Mr. Weight addressed the Senate as 
follows : 

37 



578 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" Mr, Weight said, but for his situation upon the committee, 
which reported the bill upon the table, he should not only not 
feel it to be his duty, but he should not even feel excused, for 
occupying; the attention of the Senate at this time, and adding to 
this already full debate. Indeed, so extensively had all the import- 
ant points presented by the various propositions been referred 
to, and ably debated, by those who had preceded him, that he 
should feel justified in preserving silence, had not certain charges 
been made against the committee, touching the discharge of their 
duties, which he felt himself compelled to notice. He did not 
use the term ' charges ' in any offensive or improper sense, but as 
expressing strong differences of opinion between himself and 
those who had complained. 

"The reference of this and all the other important subjects 
which had occupied the attention of the Senate during its pres- 
ent session to a single committee, though strictly appropriate, 
had necessarily devolved upon the members of that committee 
some labor, great anxiety, and high and delicate responsibilities. 
It was impossible, therefore, that any one of them, and most espe- 
cially any one of the majority of the committee, who had con- 
curred in its reports, could have listened to this debate with any 
other than the most interested feelings; nor could they pass, in 
silence, charges of insensibility to the crisis, and its influence 
upon all the citizens of the country, or of a culpable neglect of 
any important duty confided to them. What then were the 
charges to which he had referred ? 

" The first was, that the committee had confined their delibe- 
rations, and the measures they had proposed, simply to the wants 
of the government, in disregard of the higher and paramount 
wants of the people. It had been said that the great and import- 
ant purpose of this extra convention of Congress was to relieve 
the people, and that the wants of the government were secondary 
and unimportant in the comparison. He did not himself under- 
stand this new doctrine of a separation of interests between the 
government and the people. He had supposed that the wants of 
the people, which it was within the constitutional power of the 
government to relieve, were, of necessity, the wants of the gov- 
ernment itself; nor could he understand how it was possible that 



Life and Times of Silas Wuight. 579 

the government could have any want, wliicli was not a want of 
the people. The public treasury wants money. Is that a want 
of the government and not a want of the people? For what is 
the money wanted ? To carry out the dearest interest of the 
people, in all the objects of a good government, of a government 
of their own choice. Why is the want of money for the public 
treasury a want of the government? Simply because it is a 
want of the people, inasmuch as, without it, their government 
cannot be caiTied on. 

" He would examine, for a moment, the measures which the 
committee had reported to the Senate, that, in that way, it might 
be seen what was their tendency and effect, and how far the com- 
mittee had been derelict in their attention to the wants of the 
citizens generally, or in proposing such measures of relief as the 
government could properly adopt. He certainly did not intend 
to discuss now measures which had passed the Senate and gone to 
the House many days since, but he trusted a reference to these 
measures, for the purpose he had avowed, would be not only 
pardonable, but proper. 

" The first was the bill to postpone the transfer of the fourth 
installment of the deposit with the States. The committee found 
that the existing law made it the duty of the Secretary to make 
this transfer to the States, of about nine and one-third millions 
of dollars, on the first day of the present month, — on yesterday. 
They found that the means in the treasury, from which alone it 
could be made, were in the late deposit banks, and in the deferred 
and unpaid merchants' bonds for duties. If the transfer must be 
made, the banks and the merchants must be called upon for 
immediate payments, to enable the treasury to make it. Conse- 
quently, the customers of the banks, and of the merchants, must 
be called upon to pay them, that they might be able to pay the 
government. The committee supposed it impolitic to make the 
call, and oppress the debtor citizens, merely that the treasury 
might obtain the money to transfer for safe-keeping. They con- 
sidered it wiser and better to postpone the transfer, and give time 
to the banks and merchants to pay. Therefore they presented 
the bill in question ; and was it not a relief bill ? Did any one 
look on it as a relief to the banks and merchants only? Did any 



580 Life And Tiites of Silas Wright. 

one suppose that the banks actually had in their possession, locked 
up in their vaults, the money they owe to the government, or 
that the merchants were in funds to pay their deferred bonds, 
without a call upon their customers? On the contrary, did not 
all know that the banks had loaned these moneys in the ordinary 
course of their banking operations, and that they could not paj^ 
without collecting in these loans at this difticult period for bor- 
rowers to pay ? Did not all know that the inability of the 
importing merchants to pay proceeded from the inability of their 
customers to pay, and that, if pressed for payment by the govern- 
ment, they must press those customers '? And who are the cus- 
tomers of the banks and the merchants ? Are they not the 
people, and the whole people ? Would any one say, then, that 
this was not a relief bill? that this was a bill for the govern- 
ment, and not for the people ? 

" The second bill reported by the committee was to authorize 
the emission of ten millions of dollars in value of treasury notes; 
in this form to borrow upon the credit of the United States the 
sum of ten millions of dollars in money- — and for what ? To 
enable the treasury to get on, and grant time to the debtor banks 
and merchants. The committee found the treasury in want of 
means to answer the ordinary calls upon it, and that those means 
must be realized, either from a prompt collection of the demands 
due to it, or from moneys raised upon the public credit. For the 
reasons which induced them to recommend a postponement of the 
further deposit with the States, they were also induced to present 
this bill to the Senate, and thus, so far as the current calls upon 
the treasury should require it, to interpose the public credit 
between the wants of the government and the rigid collection 
of its dues. Was this bill to be considered in the mere liffht of 
a care for the government, without regard for the interests of the 
citizens ? Who were to be affected by a prompt and rigid collec- 
tion of tlie public dues ? Not the government or the treasury, 
but the public debtors. Who Avere the public debtors? The 
banks and the merchants immediately ; the borrowers from the 
banks and the customers of the merchants substantially. And 
who were the borrowers from the banks and the customers of the 
merchants but the people of the country ? 



Life and Tlues of Stlas Wriojit. 58] 

" The third bill reported by the committee was to grant time 
to the importing merchants upon their bonds, due and to becomt; 
due, for a year from the present time. The extension, as assented 
to by the committee and ordered by the Senate, was nine months 
upon each bond. Would any one question that that was a relief 
measure to the merchants ? Did any one suppose that the relief 
afforded by that bill was designed to reach no farther than the 
merchants who owed the bonds? No, sir. It was the customers 
of those merchants, the persons who had purchased for consump- 
tion and use the goods upon which the duties were payable, that 
the bill was to relieve. Few, comparatively, of those who occupy 
these seats would have voted for that measure had its influence 
and action been confined to the merchants only. But they could 
not indulge their debtors unless they could be indulged by the 
government, because they must collect if they must pay. To 
enable them to grant the indulgence which the state of the times 
and the condition of the monetary affairs of the country demanded, 
was the design and object, and would be the effect, of the bill. 
Who, then, would deny to it its relief character? 

" The fourth bill which the committee presented for the accept- 
ance of the Senate was one to extend a proportionate indulgence 
to the late deposit banks for the payment of the balances remain- 
ing due from them to the public treasury. It was true that these 
institutions stood upon a different footing from the merchants. 
They had merely received the public moneys for safe-keeping. 
The moneys were legally and technically in the treasury, but 
were they there in fact ? Could the Treasurer command them 
for the uses of the government or the people ? No. They were 
unavailable funds in the treasury. And why were they unavail- 
able funds? Because the banks had got them locked in their 
vaults, and were not willing to pay them upon demand? No, 
sir ; but because the banks had them not ; because they were 
loaned to the customers of the banks, the citizens of the country, 
who could not pay on demand. The relation of debtor and credi- 
tor, in its ordinary acceptation, was not intended to be created 
by the law establishing the late bank-deposit system. It was a 
mere agency for the safe-keeping of the money, which the law 
recognized, but that agency had been turned into the relation of 



582 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

debtor and creditor by the failure of the banks to fulfill on their 
pai-t — into the most unpleasant relation of debtor and creditor; 
a creditor who wants and debtors who cannot pay. Indulgence, 
therefore, became a matter of interest to the creditor, as adding 
to the chances of eventual payment, and of favor to the debtors, 
as oiving them time to collect the means for payment. To whom, 
then, was the favor, the relief, extended ? To the banks or to 
their customers ? Most assuredly to the latter. The banks could 
pay if they could collect ; and, if compelled to pay, they would 
be compelled to collect. Their power to indulge depended upon 
the indulgence extended to them ; and could it be said that a 
measure giving to them four, six and nine months, to pay their 
balances to the treasury, was a measure solely confined to the 
protection of the government, without regard to the relief of the 
people ? 

"These were the first four bills presented by the committee to 
the Senate, and yet they were told that they had forgotten the 
suffering interests of our great community in their exclusive care 
for the government and its .officers. Was the charge just or 
merited ? These bills had all received the final action of the 
Senate, and all, save one, had passed this body by nearly unani- 
mous votes, while that one had passed by a large majority. It 
was true that the connection between them was intimate, and 
that, to a greater or less extent, each subsequent one was predi- 
cated upon the success of its predecessor, while all were most 
intimately connected with the condition and action of the public 
treasury. 

" Indeed, it was but candid to say that the committee knew of 
no direct relief which Congress could properly afford to the dis- 
tresses of the people of the country, but such as should grow out 
of the existing connection between the means of the treasury 
and the banking and mercantile interests. These bills covered 
all that ground, and no difference of opinion could possibly exist 
as to them, unless it should arise upon the principle of indulgence 
or the time of indulgence. No such difference had been mani- 
fested in the action of the Senate upon the respective measures, 
and therefore it was risrht to assume that none existed. Some 
had supposed that it was the duty of Congress to borrow the 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 583 

nine and one-tliird millions covered by the first bill, that it might 
be transferred to the States for safe-keeping; and propositions 
having that tendency had been presented to and acted upon by 
the Senate, but they did not meet with favor. The body did not 
seem to suppose that such a disposition of the public credit 
would be a measure of relief either to the government or the 
people, and it was rejected. 

"Take, then, the four measures referred to, sum them up in 
their combined action, and to what do they amount as relief to 
the community ? The first is equal to a forbearance to collect 
nine and one-third millions of dollars from the customers of the 
banks and the merchants, to be transferred to the States for safe- 
keeping. The three last authorize a loan upon the public credit, 
to the amount of ten millions of dollars, to pay the expenses of 
the government and meet the public appropriations, and a for- 
bearance of the collection of that sum from the public debtors, 
that they too may be able to forbear collections, at this trying 
period, from those who are indebted to them. Here, then, is 
direct and positive relief to the amount of nineteen and one-third 
millions of dollars. Might he not, then, ask, with some force 
and some justice, whether the committee were obnoxious to the 
chai'ge of having forgotten the interests of the people in their 
care for the government ? He would here dismiss this topic. 

" The next and only remaining charge against the committee 
which he proposed to notice was, that in their action they had 
entirely overlooked, or wholly neglected to act upon, one of the 
most, nay, the very most, important of the subjects presented 
for their action in the message of the President referred to them; 
that they had reported no bill declaring the description of cur- 
rency which should be receivable in payment of the public dues. 
He did not refer to this complaint against the action of the 
committee for the purpose of representing it as unjust or ungene- 
rous; not even for the purpose of refuting it. It had come from 
opposite sides of the House, and it might be well founded. The 
fact was certainly as alleged; and his only purpose was to give 
the reasons which governed himself, and which, he was certain, 
governed the majority of the committee, in the conclusion to 
report no bill upon the subject of the currency to be received 



584 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

into the public treasury. Those reasons had been and still were 
satisfactory to himself, as, he doubted not, they were to his col- 
leao-ues upon the committee; but the course of action of the 
Senate upon this bill seemed to indicate, and its final action 
would probably show, that they were not satisfactory to the 
majority of the body. Should this be so, the committee would 
be content when their reasons had been placed fairly before the 
Senate and the country. 

"They found the message presenting, among others, two dis- 
tinct points, both, in the judgment of the committee, most 
deeply interesting to the public treasury, the government and 
the country. The first was a continuance of the separation 
between the moneys of the people and the State banks, which 
the operation of the existing laws and the conduct of the banks 
had already produced. The other was a gradual and safe dis- 
continuance of the reception of the bills of the State banks in 
payment of the public dues, and an eventual return to the col- 
lection of gold and silver and such paper as should be issued 
upon the faith and credit of the United States, and be, by 
the laws of Congress, made receivable for debts due to the 
United States. The laws as they are, upon the subject of the 
deposit and safe-keeping of the public moneys, seemed to the 
committee to require immediate action, if the recommendation of 
the President was to be carried out and made a part of our per- 
manent policy. Hence they reported to the Senate the bill now 
under discussion. They were not unmindful that some regula- 
tion as to the descriptions of currency to be received in payment 
of the public dues might become necessary, in case the new sys- 
tem of deposits should be adopted and the present condition of 
the banks should be changed ; but in the present condition of the 
banks and of the law upon this point, they could see no necessity 
for immediate action, or for any present change of the existing 
laAVS. They felt that the two subjects were somewhat connected, 
but not so intimately as to require or demand that both should 
be embraced in the same bill. They knew that great diversity 
of sentiment prevailed as to both, and that different opinions 
were held by those who had hitherto been friends and supporters 
of the administration, as well as between them and their common 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 585 

political opponents. Under tliese circnmstances, and witli the 
distinct expression of a desire, on tlie part of a large majority of 
the Senate, tliat the present session shonld l)e terminated at the 
earliest possible day, the committee felt bound to present every 
subject from their hands in the most simple and distinct foi-ni, 
and in a shape which might receive the definitive action of tiie 
body with tlie least possible consumption of time. With (his 
view they reported separate bills upon every subject upon wliich 
they did report, and the same consideration influenced them to omit 
reports u]ion all subjects which they supposed might be deferred 
to the regular annual session, without injury to any important 
interest, public or private. By tlie law, as it stands, the notes of 
non-specie-paying banks can neither be received in payment of tlie 
public dues nor paid to the public creditors. He was sorry to be 
compelled to say that, for all practical purposes either to the gov- 
ernment or the people, thei-e were, at this time, no other banks in 
the country, and he was much more sorry to be compelled to 
believe that there would not, in a practical sense, be any such 
banks until after the time when Congress would be ag-ain in ses- 
sion. No one had proposed, and he was happy to know that no 
one would propose, to make the inconvertible notes of non-specie- 
paying banks receivable at the public treasury, and surely no one 
could have expected such a proposition from the committee. The 
revenues, then, to every practicable extent, are now receivable in 
gold and silver only, unless Congress shall, at its present session, 
create a paper upon the faith and credit of the government, and 
make it receivable for the public dues. Hence the absence of 
any immediate necessity for legislation upon this point. The 
committee fui-ther believed, what has already been proved to be 
true, that any bill upon this subject would lead to long and grave 
discussion, and tend to protract the session. For these reasons 
they had omitted to report upon this subject, and he had as yet 
seen nothing to change his opinion of the wisdom of their course. 
He still believed that the connection of these two subjects in the 
same bill was undesirable; that it would retard action, and, he 
greatly feared, embarrass the bill which the committee had 
reported, and the passage of which they considered to be of high 
public importance. The matter, however, was now with the 



586 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Senate, and he should cheerfully submit to its choice. If called 
upon to vote upon the propositions before it, he was ready to 
vote, whether they should be insisted upon as amendments to 
the committee's bill or as an independent measure. 

" Having said thus much by way of explanation, and he hoped, 
to some extent, justification, of the course and action of the com- 
mittee, he would now pass to a brief discussion of the bill before 
the Senate. 

" The crisis, he said, was one of the deepest interest. Every 
man in these seats, every citizen of the country, felt it to 
be so. Still, its peculiar character could not be too often 
adverted to, or too firmly fixed in the memory of all. Dur- 
ing a period of profound peace; after a series of years of 
unexampled abundance in every production of the earth, and 
every product of labor ; with a currency more abundant than 
our young country had ever before witnessed, and standing as 
strong in the public confidence as our paper currency had ever 
stood; with ready markets, and prices higher than any former 
period of peace had sustained ; under the influence of all these 
elements and evidences of prosperity and wealth, national ana 
individual, and at the entrance uj^on another of those rich and 
fruitful seasons with which a kind Providence so fi-equently 
blesses our fertile soil — a season not surpassed by any which has 
preceded it in the abundance it has returned to the husbandman 
for his labor — at such a time, and under such circumstances, the 
revulsion came, and in an instant, as it were, in a single night, 
the whole beauty of this rich scene was changed. That currency, 
so abundant and creditable, became depreciated, inconvertible 
and debased. Those markets, so quick and active, and profitable, 
became stagnant and deserted. Those prices, so alluring to 
enterprise and industry, were changed to a priceless mass of 
unsalable commodities. 

" That all should have inquired after the causes of this sad and 
sudden change was most natural. That statesmen should have 
done so was necessary to the discharge of their delicate and 
responsible duties. The President of the United States, to 
qualify himself for the performance of his constitutional duty of 
giving to Congress ' information of the state of the Union, and 



Life and Times of Silas Wkicut. 587 

recommending to their consideration such measures as he shall 
judge necessary and expedient,' has done this. In his message, 
he has given to us his opinion of the causes wliich have brougiit 
upon our country this sudden and sweeping revulsion. Tt was 
not his purpose to examine the correctness of these opinions oi' 
the President. No one had expressed a doubt tliat they wei\' 
honestly entertained, and all admitted that they had been clearly, 
frankly and firmly expressed. They had been the subject of 
able and extended criticism in the course of this debate, and he 
thought, also, the subject of equally able and perfectly triumphant 
defense. Entertaining this opinion, he had but a single remark 
to make in regard to them, and that was, that he had heard criti- 
cism and contradiction from some quarters of the House delivered 
in a manner and in language which excited his profound regret — 
in a manner and in language which he would not, if he could 
(and he was most thankful he could not), imitate, toward friend 
or opponent. 

" He had listened to the debate, however, with profound atten- 
tion; and while all had their peculiar views of the causes of the 
present derangement in our monetary affairs, and while the views 
of tlie different speakers differed materially as to the immediate 
and most active causes, he thought there were certain general 
positions substantially conceded by all, Avhich, being drawn out 
and placed in their proper order, would advance us very far in 
the wide field of discussion presented and occupied by the vari- 
ous members. He had endeavored, therefore, to place these posi- 
tions upon paper, and to give them an order best calculated to 
promote this object. They were as follows: 

" 1. That wide-spread and highly injurious derangements have 
been and are experienced in the banking concerns and in most 
of the business transactions of the country. 

" 2. That the present embarrassments in the affixirs of indi- 
viduals are, to a greater or less extent, caused or greatly 
increased by the existing embarrassments in the affairs of the 
banks. 

" 3. That an undue multiplication of banks by many of the 
State Legislatures, and excessive issues of paper money by the 
State banks, are among the most prominent of the causes Avhich 



588 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

have brought about these embarrassments of the banks, and con- 
sequently of business genei-ally. 

"4. That a material enlargement of the specie basis for our 
paper circulation is indispensable to tlie security of the banks 
and the stability of the paper currency. 

" 5. That all banks of issue and circulation are liable to excesses, 
and that the State banks, from their distant locations, rival inter- 
ests, and the variety and diversity of their business and associ- 
ations, are peculiarly so liable, which renders it desii'able and 
important that the fiscal action of this government should never 
be so directed as to promote these excesses, while, so far as that 
can be safely and constitutionally done, it should be so directed 
as to have an equal tendency, in all parts of our extended con- 
federacy, to check them. 

" 6. That the powers of Congress, to prevent the evil of exces- 
sive banking by the State institutions, are, in no sense, direct and 
positive, but are, in whatever form they may be exercised, inci- 
dental and consequential, growing out of the expressly granted 
powers. 

" So far he thought all could agree and walk together in this 
trying crisis. He was not aware that any one Avould controvert 
either of these positions, while he was sure that most of those 
who had addressed the Senate, in the course of this debate, upon 
whatever side of the House, had substantially assumed them. 

" The difference seemed to arise as we passed the last proposi- 
tion, and came to inquire how this incidental power of Congress 
should be exercised. The late catastroplie to the banks and busi- 
ness of the country had satisfied all that something was wrong 
in the working of our monetary system, but the seat of the dis- 
ease, and the appropriate remedy, were questions upon which 
opinions differed. 

" The President was bound, in recommending to the considera- 
tion of Congress such measures as he judged necessary and 
expedient, to point out his view of the evil, so far as he should 
consider it connected with and remedial by federal legislation, 
and to present his plan of remedy. He has done so frankly and 
fully; and as the majority of the Committee on Finance have 
agreed with him, and have reported the bill under consideration 



Life and Tuies of Silas Win<;iiT. 589 

to carry out his recommendation upon this point, it would ho liis 
duty, Mr. W. said, to examine tliat bill in its t'avoi-ahU' and 
unfavorable influences uj>on tlie treasury, upon the government, 
upon the banks and upon the currency generally. The saiV'-kccp- 
ing of the public moneys became separated from the State banks, 
in May last, by the voluntary suspension of si)ecie i)ayments l)y 
the banks, and the operation of the existing laws upon that act, 
and the bill proposes to continue the separation. 

" Before he could proceed with his argument, he must hei'e 
notice a position taken by the Senator from South Carolina, who 
addressed the Senate yesterday [Mr. Preston], and which position, 
he must say, he heard assumed with some surprise. It was, that 
the existing la^v had not produced a separation between the pub- 
lic treasury and the State banks ; that they were not legally 
separated, and that the only separation Avhich did exist was one 
forced by the Secretary of the Treasury, without the requirement 
of law and against the public interests. If he correctly under- 
stood the Senator, this was a fail- statement of his argument ; 
and he would repeat, he had heard it with surprise. The answer 
to it should be an extract from the law itself; and it would be 
found a triumphant answer. That part of the eighth section of 
the deposit act of the 23d of June, 1836, which prescribed the 
rule for the action of the Secretary ujxm this subject, was in the 
following words : 

"' Sec. 8. And he it further enacted. That no bank which shall be selected 
or employed as the place of deposit of the public money shall be discon- 
tinued as such depository, or the public money withdrawn therefrom, except 
for the causes hereinafter mentioned ; that is to say, if at any time any one 
of said banks shall fail or refuse to perform any of said duties as prescribed 
by this act, and stipulated to be performed by its contract ; or if amj of said 
banks sJiall at any titne refuse t/) pay its own notes in specie, if demamUd; or 
shall fail to keep in its vaults such an amount of specie as shall be required 
by the Secretary of the Treasury, and shall be, in his opinion, necessary to 
render the said bank a safe depository of the public moneys, having due 
regard to the nature of the business transacted by the bank ; in, any and 
every such case it shall be the duty of the Secretary of tJie Tremury to discontinue 
any stich bank as a depository, and tcithdratc from it the public moneys which it 
may hold on deposit at the time of such discontinuance.'' 

" This was the law. What had the Secretary done? He had 
discontinued the defaulting banks as public depositories. Had 



590 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

he obeyed the law in doing this, or had he forced the separation? 
It was true, as the gentleman had stated, that there were yet six 
specie-paying banks, and consequently six deposit banks upon 
the list ; but where were they located? Wtiat were the collec- 
tions of the revenue at those points ? What was the imi)ortance 
of any one of them as a fiscal agent of the treasury ? The gen- 
tleman had not seen fit to give to tlie Senate tliese facts in con- 
nection with his claim on behalf of this remnant of the deposit 
banks, and certainly he did not intend to detain the Senate to do 
it. It was enough for his purpose that the connection was, for 
all practical and useful purposes, either to the government or 
the people, wholly dissolved ; and, if it again existed, must exist 
by a rexinion, not as a continuance of any present existence. 

"The conduct of the Secretary of the Treasury was complained 
of by the Senator. Had the Secretary attempted to force a sepa- 
ration between the public deposits and the six remaining deposit 
banks ? This was not alleged. They were placed upon the list 
of depositories in the report of the Secretary, laid before Congress 
at the commencement of the present session ; and in the same 
statement the location of each, and the amount of public money 
on deposit in each, to enable the Senate and the country to judge 
of the importance of a continued connection with these banks as 
fiscal agents of the treasury, were plainly given. From this 
statement the assertion had been made, and was now repeated, 
that, for all practical and useful purposes to the treasury or the 
people, the connection between the deposit banks and the public 
moneys was at an end. Nor was the Secretary of the Treasury 
in any sense chargeable for the dissolution of this connection. 
So far from it, his own statements to Congress show that he has 
fallen short of the execution of the law. It commanded him, 
upon the failure of any bank to pay specie for its notes, when 
demanded, not only to discontinue such bank as a depository, 
but to ' vnthdraio from it the public ononeys which it may hold 
on deposit at the time of such discontinuance.'^ Has he done 
this ? No ; for he tells us that the larger portion of the means 
in the treasury, at this moment, exist in balances due from these 
banks as portions of the deposits they have received for safe- 
Keeping. Has the Secretary brought suits to recover these bal- 



Life anu Times of Silas ]Vin<;iiT. 59] 

ances when the banks have failed to make legal payment? He 
tells ns not, except in a few cases where it was considered neces- 
sary for the eventual security of the public property. He, then, 
is the last person in the world who should be charged with per- 
secution against the banks, or with an attempt to force a sepai-a- 
tion between them and the i)ublic treasury. If he is culpable at 
all, it is in not having obeyed the law, by withdrawing from 
them the moneys they held in deposit at the time they discon- 
tinued the payment of their notes in -specie, when demanded. 
If he has violated the law, he has violated it from lenity to the 
banks; and all know that this lenity has been wholly compulsory, 
growing out of the situation in which the banks have placed 
themselves. So much for the charge that the Secretary of the 
Treasury has forced the separation between the banks and the 
government. 

" He would now proceed to inquire what influences, favorable 
or unfavorable, the bill (to make this separation between all bunks 
and the public money permanent) would exert upon the public 
treasury. It would give to the treasury direct possession, and a 
perfect knowledge of its means at all times and under all circum- 
stances. They would consist not of bank credits but of money, 
and would, therefore, not be subject to any of the fluctuations 
to which bank credits must be always liable. The means of the 
treasury would be the value received, and not the mere represen- 
tation of that value in account. 

" It would give to the treasury the perfect command of its 
means. It would no longer be troubled with unavailable funds, 
a description of funds well known to it for the last tAventy years; 
which have always grown exclusively out of its connection with 
banks ; which now constitute almost its only resource for the 
payment of the public creditors ; and the consequence of which 
character given to the means of the treasury, so far as he was 
informed, had, more than any other single cause, compelled the 
convention of Congress at this inconvenient and, he thought he 
might safely say, dangerous season of the year. It might be 
well, here, to deflne this term ' unavailable funds,' as applied to 
the means in the public treasury. He understood them to con- 
sist, now and upon all former occasions, either of bank notes, 



592 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

which the banks issuing them could not redeem in specie, or any- 
lliing else which would pay the debts of the government; or of 
moneys received by the banks for safe-keeping, and which they 
could not pay, upon demand, in the legal currency of the country, 
or in any currency which the creditors of the government would 
consent to receive as money. An entire separation from banks 
would, of course, relieve the public treasury from this embarrass- 
ment for the future. It would, at all times, enable the treasury 
to pay the demands upon it, when the money of the people had 
been collected and placed in its keeping for that pui-pose; whereas, 
under the connection, these moneys were liable to become un- 
available in the hands or the banks, and the people again to be 
called upon to raise, either from their pockets or upon their credit, 
the means to pay those very debts for the payment of which they 
had once provided, by depositing the money in bank. 

"A continuance of the separation would further relieve the 
treasury from the necessity of using its means to sustain the 
credit of banks, when revulsions in trade and general shocks to 
credit shouhl bring the banks in jeopardy. These revulsions 
must be always more or less frequent in every commercial coun- 
try, and most frequent and most severe in those which most 
extensively adopt a system of paper or credit circulation and cur- 
rency. If, then, the means of the national treasury are confided 
to the safe-keeping of the banks which furnish that paper or 
credit circulation and currency, they must be always subject to 
the fluctuations, revulsions and incidents to which the credit of 
the banks are subject. They become mere credits with the banks, 
and cannot be exempted from the influences which affect its other 
credits. Can the fiscal oiflcers of the government, then, neglect 
to put forth their exertions and the means at their command to 
sustain the credit of those banks, when occasion shall call, whose 
credits constitute the means of the public treasury itself ? He 
was not ignorant of the fact that loud and startling complaints 
had been made in this hall against a late Secretary of the Trea- 
sury, upon the mere suspicion that he had used the means of the 
treasury to sustain the credit of the deposit banks; but would 
any gentleman deny that, under this concise and practical view 
of the consequences of a connection between the treasury of the 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 593 

people and the banks, it must frequently become the imperious 
duty of that officer, a duty as binding as that of keeping the 
treasury in a situation to answer the calls upon it, to exert this 
power, and so to locate the means of the treasury as to render it 
as effective as possible ? The consequence was unavoidable; and 
still the exercise of such a power would always be odious in a 
political sense, and must always be more or less invidious in a 
financial sense. It could never be exerted equally toward all the 
banks, but must be used especially in favor of those which should 
be, for the time being, the depositories of the public funds. 
Its influence, then, might often be unfavorable, and even injurious 
toward institutions which had promoted, as much as any other, 
the collection and })rompt payment of the public revenues, but 
which should not, on the day of trouble, be safe keepers of any 
portion of those revenues. Is it not desirable, if it can be done 
with safety to all interests to be regarded, to relieve the treasury, 
and the head of the fiscal department of this government, from 
this always so delicate, and frequently so odious, an exercise of 
the power and influence of the public funds upon the credit of 
the banks and the business of the country? He must say that a 
proper national pride, and a just feeling of patriotism, seemed 
to him to demand it, at an}^ expense short of the positive sacrifice 
of some paramount public interest. 

"A further benefit to be derived fi'om a system which shall 
make the treasury the keejjer of its own means, and especially if 
those means shall be collected and disbursed in the legal currency 
of gold and silver, or of paper issued upon the faith and credit 
of the government only, will be a perfect uniformity of value in 
the collections and disbursements of the treasury, wherever 
made. Its operations will become stable and certain in every 
sense, and all the contracts with the government may be made 
without the customary deductions on account of the anticipated 
receipt of a depreciated medium of payment. Every citizen 
can make his proposals for the pulilic works or public supplies, 
wherever may be the place of his residence or the place of pay- 
ment under the contract, based upon the par of money, and will 
not be driven to an uncertain calculation upon the fluctuations of 
exchange and the uncertainties of credit. 

38 



594 I'l^^ ^-^-^ Times of Silas Wright. 

" These are some of the benefits to be anticipated to the public 
treasury from a permanent separation from the banks. What 
are the injuries, the unfavorable influences, if any, to stand 
ao-ainst these benefits ? He had heard but one suggested, so far 
as the interests and conveniences of the treasury are concerned, 
and he must say but that one had occurred to his mind. The 
expense and trouble of remitting specie, in cases where that 
should become necessary, was, he believed, the only drawback 
upon the treasury for all these benefits, and a short examination 
would show the weight of this objection. 

" Under the system of bank deposits, drafts from the Treasurer, 
upon the diff'erent depositories, and from one depository upon 
another, are made the medium of remittance in all ordinary cases, 
and, where the drafts are fully credited, supersede the necessity of 
an actual transportation of the money in almost all the operations 
of the public treasury. Nothing in the system proposed pre- 
vents the use of the same medium for remittance and exchange. 
The drafts of the Treasurer of the United States upon a receiving 
ofticer of the government will certainly have as good credit as 
his drafts upon a deposit bank, and when they are known to be 
drawn upon the specie in safe-keeping, and upon nothing else, 
they caunot fail to be as acceptable to the public creditor as any 
similar drafts have heretofore been. The trouble and expense, 
therefore, of transporting specie funds from one portion of the 
country to the other, for disbursement to the public creditors, 
will not probably be more extensive under this bill than under 
the bank system, which it proposes to supersede. 

" But we here meet an objection from the Senator from South 
Carolina [Mr. Preston], which requires an answer. He says the 
system proposed, thus carried out, will constitute a bank, a bank 
of discount, a bank of issue, a national bank, a government bank. 
He reasons thus : One of the depositories constituted by the bill 
will make its draft upon another and deliver it to the public 
creditor. Tlie receipt of the draft by the public creditor is a 
discount of the paper of the ofticer making it. The person 
receiving the draft may transfer it to his neighbor before it is 
presented for payment, and it may pass from hand to hand before 
it finds its way to tlie ofticer upon whom it is drawn, and who 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 595 

has tlie specie in keeping for its payment. This will convert the 
draft into an issue of paper, and as it is drawn upon specie funds 
in actual deposit in the hands of the drawee, the whole machinery- 
must constitute a bank, and a bank, too, of deposit, discount and 
issue. Now, the only answer which this argument requires is sim- 
ply to say, that if this constitutes a national baid-:, a government 
bank, or a bank of any sort, then we have had such a bank under 
the system of deposit with the State banks, because the public 
disbursements have constantly been made, and the public funds 
distributed and equalized by exactly similar drafts. He saw no 
force whatever in the argument, unless it was designed to frighten 
those who, like himself, were not very partial to banks of any 
description, and were most distinctly hostile to a national or 
government bank, with the apprehension that such a bank was 
insidiously buried under the bill, and w^ould be disinterred and 
spring into life at its passage. Now, he was ready to say to the 
Senator from South Carolina, and to all the friends of that Sena- 
tor, who were so very anxious for the establishment of a national 
bank, that, opposed as he was to such an institution, in name or 
in principle, if they would compromise by the acceptance of such 
a bank as this bill Avould establish, they should have it with his 
cheerful assent, and this long and heated agitation about a gov- 
ernment bank should be forever amicably settled. 

"He would now look at the influences of this measure upon 
the government. 

" It would discharge its legislation free from bank influences of 
all sorts. He spoke not of improper or corrupt influences, but of 
those constituent interests which must be represented in Con- 
gress so long as the connection between the public treasury and 
banks of any description was maintained. He addressed those 
who must understand him, and who must have seen and felt 
these influences in our official action here. Who, he w^ould ask, 
had occupied one of these seats for the last five years, and had 
not seen the power of this influence upon our deliberations? 
Who had failed to see that it was an influence more nearly over- 
powering and beyond our control than any we had been called 
to encounter? Who did not see and feel it now as pressing 
upon us with a giant force? It was true we had formerly 



596 LiTFE AND Times of Silas Wright. 

and most usually encountered it in the consolidated form of a 
national bank, and that it now presented itself to us in State 
detachments; but it was the same influence similarly exerted. It 
was the effort of cupidity on our free institutions — an effort to 
make money out of the money and means and credit of the people. 

" He uttered these sentiments with extreme reluctance, and 
with the most extended charity toward all those who differed 
from him. He knew well that not only political opponents, but 
those who had ever been political and personal friends — those 
toward whom he had ever entertained and still did entertain the 
kindest feelings — did differ with him upon these points. He 
most cheerfully yielded to their integrity, sincerity and patriot- 
ism every indulgence which he asked for himself; but the crisis, 
the importance of the questions presented, and our imperious 
duty to our constituents, demanded from us frank and fearless 
action. 

" Was it not, then, in case he was right, most desirable to free 
the legislation of Congress from bank influence altogether? 
Would it not tend, more than any other single act we could per- 
form, to take from our debates and deliberations that bitterness 
and acrimony which had too strongly characterized them for the 
last few years, but which, he was proud to say, had entered in a 
much less degree into the present debate in the Senate than into 
any similar debate for many years? For himself, he felt that 
this consideration alone demanded the passage of this bill: that it 
was entirely paramount to any objections he had yet heard urged 
against it; that it was as much superior to considerations of 
financial convenience and pecuniary profit as was the purity and 
permanency of our political institutions to the temporary advan- 
tages of a bargain or the facilities of borrowing money. 

"This was not the only advantage the government would 
derive from a permanent separation of its finances from the 
banks. It would discharge it from that eternal round of imputa- 
tions to which, under the connection, its every fiscal action is 
subjected. If it be a time of prosperity and plenty, all are 
struggling for the profits arising from the safe-keeping of the 
government funds; and the failure on the part of its fiscal otiicer 
to select a given bank as a public depository is not only matter 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 597 

of personal offense, but is immediately converted into tlie active 
cause of all the pecuniary calamities which the friends and cus- 
tomers of that bank may experience tlirough all time to come. 
If it be a time of scarcity and pressure, like tlie present, the 
drafts of the Treasurer upon the money of the people in safe- 
keeping with tlie banks is a lutldess attack, a war upon them, 
and is ntended to prostrate the institutions. The former keep- 
ing of the funds becomes a merit and a virtue, and to ask for 
their payment to the public creditors is ingratitude and injustice. 

" If the executive, in the exercise of a sound discretion, sees 
proper to issue an order requiring paj'ment in money for the 
whole, or any portion, of the public revenue, this is converted 
into an attack upon the banks, a distrust of their credit and sol- 
vency, and a wrong inflicted by the government upon the whole 
people. Can it be desirable to preserve a connection which is 
the subject of incessant complaint on the part of the banks and 
their friends, and of constant embarrassment to the operations 
of tlie public treasury, and of imputation upon the most faithful 
and worthy public officers ? He tliought not. lie considered this 
connection of the fiscal affairs of tlie government with the credit 
and business of the banks, and of business and commercial men, 
and the constant imputations brought u])on the government 
thereby, as promoting a political morality in the public mind 
most dangerous to our institutions; as doing more to weaken the 
confidence of the peoi)le in the government of their choice, than 
any and all other causes of distrust combined. If we would 
listen to the slander and misrepresentations of the times, we must 
believe that all our misfortunes, public and private, are imputable 
to our government — all our prosperity to a resistance to its mea- 
sures and its policy. And whence do these imputations come, 
but from our connection with the banks ? They all emanate from 
that source, and from no other. That connection is now dis- 
solved, by the operation of law and the voluntary action of the 
banks themselves ; and he would say, let it be perpetual — let it 
never be renewed. 

" The effect of this measure upon the banks should next occupy 
his attention. 

" It had been considered as a measure of open and violent hos- 



598 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

tility to those institutions, as fraught with unmixed evil to them. 
Was this the true view of it? Had it these exclusive tenden- 
cies ? He thought not, and he would attempt to point out some 
positive benefits to the banks from its adoption. 

" It would leave the State banks to operate upon their own 
means — upon the capitals which the respective State Legislatures 
had thought proper to give to them, and upon the funds derived 
from their private depositors. These means would be perfectly 
certain and uniform, so far as they consisted of the capitals of 
the banks, and would be subject to no dangerous fluctuations, so 
far as they consisted of private deposits. Hence the action of 
the institutions could always be regulated by a certain standard — 
the extent of their means for the accommodation of their custo- 
mers. This would discharge them from the inducement to those 
dangerous expansions and contractions, which not only promote, 
but cause, revulsions such as that under which the country now 
sufi^ers. 

" The government has been charged with being the cause of 
the present pecuniary embarrassments of the country, and he 
thought not without some foundation; but he considered the con- 
nection between the treasury and the banks the only foundation 
for such a charge. What had we done ? We had deposited our 
funds in the State banks. A period of unexampled prosperity 
had visited our country. Importations had become excessive, 
and the duties thereupon had swelled the public revenue from 
that source beyond all reasonable anticipation. The banks 
received the excess of revenue which the wants of the govern- 
ment and the public appropriations did not call for. The same 
causes promoted unusual and unexampled sales of the public 
lands, and thus, from both of the great sources of revenue to the 
United States, streams were poured into the public treasury, 
widened and deepened by their own accumulation and velocity. 
The banks were the safe-keepers of the public funds, the fiscal 
agents of the treasury, and they were also the reservoirs from 
which the importing and other merchants drew their means, and 
from which the speculating purchasers of our immense domain 
were supplied with funds for their operations. So far as the 
government was concerned the consequences are obvious. The 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 599 

moment the revenue exceeded the wants of the treasury, the 
excess fed the passion they ought to have controlled. The banks 
were the receivers and the payei-s. They received, to keep for 
the government, and loaned to the merchants and purchasers of 
our lands. The system, in fact and in practice, was one of indefi- 
nite credit for both duties and lands. The money paid for both 
went into the banks for safe-keeping. The treasury did not want 
it or call for it for payment of the public dues. The banks loaned 
it to their customers, who were the payers for duties and lands. 
Under these circumstances, and this action of the system, excesses 
were inevitable, and they had visited their consequences sweep- 
ingly upon the country and upon the treasury itself. 

" Ouffht not this state of things to be a lesson to the wise not 
to renew a connection which had been so disastrous to every 
interest involved ? To the government and the public treasury, 
as a creditor of the banks ; to the banks, as debtors to the trea- 
sury and creditors to the citizens ; and to the people at large, 
and especially to the commercial community, as debtors to the 
banks. 

" That the times have promoted overtrading and overbanking 
no one will deny; but that the connection between the govern- 
ment and the banks, and the forty millions of dollars of surplus 
funds in deposit with them, immensely increased the overbank- 
ing, is equally undeniable. It is not to be expected that the 
managers of banks will keep money without making profitable 
use of it, when that use is presented and urged upon them. This 
remark was not made in censure of the officers of the deposit 
banks. Their stockholders, and the community about them, 
knew that they were in possession of the funds; and the use 
would be demanded, nay, he might say commanded, had the 
officers of the institutions resisted. The evil lay farther back. 
It was in placing and retaining the funds in the banks, which the 
immediate calls upon the treasury did not require. 

"The fault of the government, however, did not stop here. 
We passed a law exacting from the banks interest for these 
funds, and thus not only sanctioned, but compelled, their use of 
them in their ordinary loans and discounts. Could a bank keep 
money and |.ay interest upon it, and derive no interest from its 



600 Life and Tj.mes of Silas Wright. 

use ? Most certainly not, and we therefore compelled the banks, 
by our express legislation, to promote the evils of which we now 
complain. We compelled them to loan our money, in their hands 
for safe-keeping, by charging and exacting from them an interest 
for its use, and thus stimulated them to increase the excesses of 
overtrading and overbanking. We furnished them with a capi- 
tal of some forty millions of dollars, and forced them to use it in 
making loans. 

" Can anything more strongly or clearly show the impolicy to 
every interest of any connection of a financial or interested char- 
acter between the local banks of the country and the treasury 
of the nation ? The imputations cast upon us, as having caused 
the present pecuniary embarrassments of the countiy, have this 
justice, and let us discharge ourselves from similar imputations 
for the future. Our real fault has been, not that we have unduly 
checked the excesses of the times, but that, in the outset, we 
promoted the expansions by the banks which necessarily led to 
those excesses, and that all our efforts, legislative and executive, 
have been insufficient to avert the catastrophe which has now 
come upon the country. We see our agency in the mischief, 
when it is too late for us to apply a remedy. The incidental 
relief in our power we have already offered to the country, so far 
as the action of this body is concerned, and now let us pass this 
bill, and protect ourselves against all imputation as wrong-doers 
for the future. 

" A further benefit to the banks, to be derived from a continu- 
ance of the separation, is, that when they shall win the public 
confidence by their sound management and permanent means, 
they will possess and retain it, independent of public j^atronage, 
independent of any action of the federal government, and exempt 
from the fluctuations which congressional legislation or executive 
discretion may otherwise cause. This is the description of public 
confidence whicli these institutions should possess and rely upon, 
and these should be its foundations. Its own capital, and the 
integrity and ability of its managers, should be the dependence 
of a banking institution; not the uncertain and changing patron- 
age of any body, much less the fluctuating and dangerous patron- 
age of governments. State or national. A credit founded upon 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 601 

such patronage must be delusive. To-day you deposit with a 
bank a million of dollars ; to-morrow it extends its accomnKxhv- 
tions upon the strength of your funds in its keeping; the day 
following its favored customers expand their business and enlarge 
their credits; on the fourth day you require your funds, and 
draw upon the bank for tlieni. Your deposit lias given to tlie 
bank a false confidence in its means; its extension has given its 
customers a false estimate of its ability to indulge them; tlicir 
expansion has given the community false expectations as to their 
power of indulgence; and your call for your money undeceives 
all, after the mischief is done, the excess committed, and just in 
time to produce the derangement and distress and suffering 
which must always, sooner or later, follow excessive credits and 
mistaken confidence. The institutions which are to furnish to 
the people of this country a circulating paper to answer the pur- 
poses of money, ought not to be subjected to fluctuations of this 
description. Their love of gain ouglit not thus to be stimulated, 
and especially by this government, which has none but an 
incidental control over their proceedings. They should be left 
by us to operate upon their own means, to rest their credit upon 
their own ability and good character, and not upon our funds. 

" But it is said the withdrawal from the State banks of our con- 
fidence, countenance and patronage, in this particular, will pros- 
trate and destroy those institutions; that the attempt to separate 
the finances of this government from them is, in effect, a declara- 
tion of war against them, which they cannot survive. Is this, 
can this be so ? Will any sound and solvent State bank fail 
because the United States does not intrust to it the safe-keeping 
of the moneys of the people? Did the State Legislatures, in 
chartering those banks, expect or intend that their credit or 
solvency should be sustained by the legislation of Congress, or 
the use of the funds of the federal government ? If so, why 
have they limited and fixed their respective capitals, and attempted 
to set bounds to their operations ? Why have they assigned 
different amounts of capital to different banks, dependent upon 
their location and business associations ? Certainly no other 
answer can be given to these interrogatories than that they 
intended that each bank should have a capital equal to the wants 



602 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

of the business community surroxmding it, and that all the banks 
of their creation should liave a credit and confidence with the 
people, and should transact a business proportioned to the capi- 
tals granted to them respectively, and not beyond that limit. 
You, then, by making your deposits with these institutions, 
destroy the proportions which the State Legislatures have in- 
tended to establish and preserve. Your deposits are treated as 
capital by the banks, and an extension of their loans, and an 
augmentation of their business, beyond that which their own 
means would allow, is the necessary consequence of your joatron- 
age. Can this disposition of your moneys fail to promote 
excessive banking ? The members of tlie State Legislatures have 
a knowledge of the business wants of all the places at which 
they locate banks, and their object is to measure the banking 
capital at any given point by the wants of business at that point. 
When they have done that, you come in with your deposits, 
distributed not upon the basis which governs the State Legisla- 
tures, but according to your own convenience for receipt or dis- 
bursement. The consequence is that you pour your millions into 
these State institutions, without reference to the legitimate business 
calls for banking facilities at the points where your deposits are 
made, and thus derange and destroy the proportions, as to these 
facilities, which the local Legislatures have determined to be 
safe and proper. In this way your patronage becomes an evil, 
and not a benefit. It stimulates the cupidity of the banks, and 
they, in turn, stimulate the cupidity of the business community 
around them, until excesses on the part of all produce revulsion, 
distress and bankruptcy. 

" Still it is urged that our withholding this evidence of our 
confidence in the State banks will destroy their credit and pros- 
trate the institutions. Will any one pretend that the States 
have rested the credit of their banking institutions upon the 
patronage or confidence of this government ? Can that man be 
found Avho will admit that, as a member of 'the Legislature of 
his State, he has voted for banks with the expectation that they 
miTSt be solvent or insolvent, as the pleasure of Congress shall 
determine ? W^ill not every such man tell you that he has given 
to the banks wliicli he has aided to create a capital stock uj)on 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 603 

which its solvency and credit with the people is to rest ? That 
with honest and prudent management each bank lias within 
itself, and under its own control, the elements of its own pros- 
perity, and is not dependent upon your smiles or to be ruined l)y 
your frowns? This ought to be so, and is so. 

" How was it with the State banks during the period from 
1816 to 1836? The Bank of the United States then enjoyed the 
exclusive privilege of keeping the public funds, and its notes 
alone were by law made receivable in payment of the public 
dues. Were the State banks discredited or ruined then ? Was 
that separation between them and the funds of the government 
treated as a war upon them, a war of extermination? No, sir. 
The operations of these institutions were never more stable and 
safe than during that period, nor did they ever stand stronger in 
the public confidence than then. Away, then, with the idea that 
the solvency or credit of the State banks rests upon our patron- 
age or favor, or that our frown upon them is annihilation. 

" He knew that were we to withdraw our confidence from a 
particular bank, and extend it to all others, the inference would 
justly be that we suspected its solvency and responsibility, and 
that this might do it injury. But when we separate ourselves 
from all banks. State or national, and declare our object to be a 
political as well as a financial separation, will it be said that we 
cast distrust upon the banks which will destroy their credit ? Will 
it be contended that the banks established by the States have a 
right to the safe-keeping and use of the revenues of the nation ? 
He thought not. And if not, then could the separation of our 
finances from them be justly termed a war against them ? No. 
The position was absurd and unsustainable. He had no feeling 
of hostility to the State banks, but he was not to concede their 
right to the possession and use of the moneys of the people, lest 
they should choose to consider a denial of the right an act of 
hostility. He would go as far as any man should go to protect 
these institutions in the full enjoyment of all their constitutional 
and legal rights; and he would go quite as far to compel them 
rigidly to fulfill their most sacred obligations to that confiding 
peoph; who take their promises to pay upon demand as money. 

"In every light, then, in which he could view this matter, it 



(504 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

was his deliberate opinion that, the banks would be benefited and 
not injured by making the existing separation between them and 
the public treasury perpetual. The passage of this bill at this 
time might have some tendency to weaken the confidence of the 
community in the institutions; but, if such a consequence must 
attend this change of our policy, could there be a better time 
than the present to make that change ? The banks were now, 
he would not say insolvent, for he did not believe that was the 
condition of any large portion of them, but unable to pay the 
demands upon them. That fact was avowed by themselves and 
known to all the world. They were in a quasi insolvent state, and 
all the distrust which could grow out of such a condition they 
had brought upon themselves by their voluntary suspension of 
specie payments. It was in vain, then, to talk of the delicacy of 
their present credit. That delicacy had been destroyed by their 
own act, and before they could ever again restore themselves to 
the confidence of the community they must be sound in fact, and 
able to discharge to the fullest extent every obligation which 
general distrust could bring against them. It was erroneous to 
suppose that they could ever resume and sustain specie payments 
until they were thus prepared and thus armed. They must build 
up for themselves a new character, based upon a perfect fulfill- 
ment of all their obligations. If, then, we are to separate from 
them, and that separation is to have any tendency to affect their 
credit, this is the very period when it is most desirable to them 
that the declaration of a perpetual divorcement should be made. 
Now it can do them no harm. They are already in a condition 
from which main strength alone can raise them; but at a time 
when their credit was unsuspected, and their operations unem- 
barrassed and unimpeded, the measure might give them an inju- 
rious sliock. Let it be done now, therefore, that wlieu they do 
rise it may be distinctly known that they rise upon their own 
strength, unaided by our patronage and untrammeled l)y our 
movements. 

"Mr. W. said he had touched but incidentally the question of 
the receptibility or non-receptibility of the notes of the State 
banks in payment of the i)ublic dues. He did not now propose 
to detain the Senate by remarks upon that point. The proposi- 



Life and Tuies of iSilas Wright. 605 

tion affecting that question had not come from the committee, 
but from a member of the Senate in his place, and to him he 
should leave the discussion of tliat topic. For himself, he agreed 
with the view of this matter which he understood his honorable 
colleague to take, that, in case the dei)Osits were confined to the 
safe-keeping of the officers of the government, it was a question 
of much less interest to the banks than seemed to be generally 
supposed. If the banks were not made the depositories, it could 
not be supposed that their notes, if made receivable, would be 
retained for any length of time in safe-keeping. It would be a 
necessary result of this mode of keeping the public funds, that 
all bank-notes received must be presented at short intervals for 
payment; and he could not see that it would be any very valu- 
able favor to the banks, as a permanent system, to receive their 
notes merely for the purpo'se of immediate presentment and pay- 
ment. In this respect he was fully conscious that the change 
should not be precipitate or rash; most especially it should not 
while the heavy balances remain due to the treasury from the 
late deposit banks. For this reason the graduation provided for 
in the amendment proposed by the Senator from South Carolina 
[Mr. Calhoun] met his approbation; nor did he think time very 
material upon this point, and he should be willing to make the 
graduation even more slow than that proposed, in case any 
important interest would be favorably affected by further time. 
The preservation of the principle was what he wished, but he 
did not desire rashness or precipitancy in bringing it into practice. 
"He would now examine very briefly the influences which he 
su]»i)Osed this measure would exert niton the cnvrency generally. 
"It would give a stable and uniform value to the currency 
received into and paid from tlie {lublic treasury, in whatever 
portion of our widely extended country the receipts or payments 
should be made. 

" It would also preserve the currency of the treasury at the 
standard fixed by the Constitution and the laws of Congress, and 
guaranteed to all the citizens of the country, as the only currency 
they siiould be compelled to take in payment of debts. 

" It would stimulate, if not compel, the banks to elevate their 
paper currency to a level with the currency of the public trea- 



606 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

sury, and would go very far to measure the public confidence in 
these institutions by the standard which regulates the currency 
received and disbursed by the government. If they keep their 
paper up to that standard of value, it will have currency and 
confidence; and if they do not, it will have neitlier. There will 
be a rule for judgment which cannot err, because it will be a rule 
of intrinsic value, and not of paper credit. 

"In this sense he deemed the measure of immense national 
importance. Hitherto the standard of currency fixed by the 
Constitution had been, in practice, erected nowhere ; while the 
banks, State and national, had been left to establish the standards 
of value in all quarters of the country, and these standards had 
been as various, at different points, as the fluctuations of trade 
could make them. The fiscal operations of the federal govern- 
ment had hitherto been made, to every practical extent, to follow 
the interests of the banks, and the uniformity of receipts and dis- 
bursements in the various portions of the Union had only been the 
uniformity of bank credits and the uniformity in value of bank 
paper. It was high time that a more permanent standard, and 
one in conformity with the Constitution, should be established. 
Congress alone could establish it; and Congress, in his judgment, 
could only establish it in connection with the receipts and dis- 
bursements of the public revenue, and to the extent of those 
i-eceipts and disbursements. He hailed this measure, then, as one 
calculated to produce this great reformation, and to bring us 
back to the starting point of 1789. With these feelings he advo- 
cated it, and hoped for its passage. 

"A further beneficial tendency of this measure will be an 
extension of the specie basis for our broad paper circulation. 
This is admitted by all to be a matter of indispensable necessity. 
Who then should contribute to it, if not the federal government^ 
Are the banks expected to do it, when it is in the very face of 
their interests to promote the circulation of the metals ? Are the. 
States to do it, when they cannot ' coin money or regulate the value 
thereof? ' Whence is this great good to the peojile of the country 
to be derived, unless Congress shall bring its powers to aid in the 
work? And how shall Congress accomplish this purpose but by 
the receipts and disbursements of the public revenue? 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 007 

"The adoption of such a system by Congress woiihl constitute 
a point, in the broad field of our currency, exempt from tlic fluc- 
tuations and revulsions to which a currency of credit must be 
always subject. It would be a fortress to wliicli public coiitideiice 
would retreat in times of trouble, and within which it would 
remain uninjured, however violent the convulsion which shouhl 
shake the monetary world. Now we were without any such 
rock of safety. The storm, which was now sufficiently powerful 
to agitate the great ocean of credit, shook alike the treasury of 
our country and the humblest bank. This ought not so to be. 
The finances of a rich and powerful and prosperous nation ought 
not to be subject to these fluctuations. Tliey ought to be 
exempted from the reverses and revulsions to which private 
cupidity will always subject the business of an enterprising people. 
Place them upon the basis of a currency of intrinsic value, and 
you accomplish this great object. Leave them to -stand upon the 
credit of banks, and you insure the recurrence of a crisis like the 
present, when, with abundant means in account, your treasury is 
destitute of means at command. 

" But we are told that tlie passage of this bill will establish 
one currency for the government and its officers, and another for 
the people. This argument has been repeated from various quar- 
ters of the House, and he was disp -/Sed to consider it as advanced 
in all candor and sincerity, and to reply to it in the same spirit. 

" He must premise, however, that he could not comprehend 
this mode of treating the government and the people of this 
country as separate interests, much less as antagonistic interests. 
He had supposed that our government consisted of mere servants 
of the people, charged, in their several stations, with the execu- 
tion of the will of the people; and that, beyond tlie execution 
of tliat temporary trust, the officers of tlie government were, to 
the extent of their numbers, the people themselves, and one with 
them in feeling and interest. How, tlien, it would be possible to 
create or establish a currency which, properly and practically 
speaking, should be a currency for the government, and should 
not, at the same time, be a currency for the people, was entirely 
beyond his comprehension. The officers of the government 
principally reside in the country, and among the people. They 



608 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

receive their compensation, whatever it may be, from the people, 
and the expenses of themselves and their families are paid, like 
those of other citizens, to the people from whom they purchase 
and with whom they deal. The curi-ency they receive from the 
people, as a compensation for their services, they must pay to the 
jjeople in discharge of their debts ; and how a currency thus 
employed, received from the people and paid back again to the 
people, could be a government currency, as contradistinguished 
from the currency of the people, he must again repeat, he could 
not at all comprehend. 

" But he would look at the argument in another aspect. It 
necessarily presupposes that a better currency is to be secured to 
the government and its officers and a baser for the people. The 
currency proposed to be secured to the national treasury is gold 
and silver, or their equivalent. The currency which the argu- 
ment assumes the people are to have is bank paper. What, 
then, do those who use the ai'gument assume? Most certainly 
that the currency of bank paper is ahvays to be baser than the 
currency of gold and silver; because if the currency of paper be 
equal in value to the cuiTcncy of gold and silver, then the argu- 
ment has no force, as urged, to show that the government and 
its officers are to be pi-eferred in our legislation to the people at 
large. Taking the argument with this assumption, and in what 
predicament do those who use it place themselves? They, by 
their own assumption, urge us to adopt, by a law of Congress, a 
standard of currency for the treasury of the nation baser than 
gold and silver, to avoid the invidiousness of giving to ourselves 
a better currency than the people are to have. Has this argu- 
ment been well considered and its consequences duly weighed? 
He thouglit not, or it would not have been presented. 

" Gentlemen might suppose it popular to talk about the cur- 
rency of the people as base and depreciated, but they would per- 
mit him to ask to whom are the peo])le to look for an elevated 
standard of currency — for a standard of currency such as is gnar- 
anteed to them by the Constitution • — if not to Congress ? Shall 
they look to the banks? The complaint of the argument is that 
the banks are to furnish them a base paper currency, while the 
government secures to itself a currency of gold and silver. Are 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 609 

they to look to the States'? They have no power to fix a stan- 
dard of currency even for their own citizens, much less for the 
nation. They must, then, look to Congress and to the Constitu- 
tion. And what shall Congress do to promote the interests of 
the people in this matter? Fix a standard of value baser than 
that which the Constitution has guaranteed to the people? 
Adopt bank paper as the standard of value of the country, for 
fear that the government will have a better currency than the 
people? Can the people ever have a better currency than the 
government, so long as the regulation of the standard rests with 
the government ? Most certainly not. If we adopt a standard 
baser than the coins, the people cannot elevate it. If we keep 
our standard upon the level of the Constitution, the people can 
compel the banks to come up to that standard, because no law 
can obligate them to receive the paper of the banks or to give to 
them their confidence, and they will, of course, do neither, unless 
the banks furnish them a currency equal to the legal standard oi 
the country; but adopt by your legislation a baser standard than 
gold and silver, and do you think — does any one think — that 
the banks will furnish a better currency for the people than you 
prescribe for the public treasury ? No, sir. The supposition 
would be absurd. If you do not fix and maintain a proper stan- 
dard of currency none can exist in the comitry. If you adopt 
and adhere to the constitutional standard in your transactions, 
the influence of your example will be all-powerful with the 
banks and with all future State legislation in regard to them. 

" The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Webster] manifested 
some alarm, lest the officers of the government should be set 
down at the first table and the people left to supply themselves 
at the second. He was one of those who claimed to be as demo- 
cratic as the honorable Senator, and as unwilling to degrade our 
masters, the people; but if the cook were to supply the first 
table with base food, in order that the master of the mansion 
might sit at it with the servants, he could not believe that the 
honor of the situation would compensate for the unwholesome 
character of the bill of fare. Would it not better comport with 
the duty of a faithful servant to provide sound, healthful, nutri- 
tious food for every table, and thus enable the master to consult 
39 



610 Life and Times or Silas Wright. 

his pleasure as to which he would be fed from, without danger 
to his health. True, if bad food were not provided and cooked 
the servants could not eat bad food, but it was as true that if 
sound food were not provided the master could not have sound 
food, whatever table he might choose it from. If Ave do not 
provide a sound standard of currency, our masters, the people, 
cannot enjoy a sound currency, for to us they have intxaisted the 
duty of selecting and establishing that standard. We act for 
them and not for ourselves, and the standard of currency we 
adopt for the public treasury is adopted for them and not for us. 
" Another argument, very nearly allied in character to the last, 
is urged against the passage of this bill. It is said its effect will 
be to raise the salaries and compensations of the public officers. 
Some have stated the increase to be equal to ten, some to twelve 
and a half, and he believed he had seen some statements raising 
it as high as twenty per cent upon the present compensations. 
What foundation had this argument ? The same as the former. 
It went upon the assumption that the currency of the country 
was now, and was always to remain, base and depreciated ; that 
a dollar of currency was not, and was not to be, equal in value 
to a statute standard dollar. Look at the position in its true 
light, and its fallacy will be instantly manifest. The com2:)ensa- 
tions of all public officers are fixed by law. Take our own com- 
pensation, for example. We are to receive a given number of 
dollars per day for each day of our service. This is the contract 
between us and the people. How, then, are we to be paid ? Are 
we to have eight dollars for each day we occupy these seats, or are 
we to have eight promises of some bank to j)ay, which are worth but 
four dollars ? Does any man doubt which was the intention of the 
law ? Will any man contend that we are overpaid if we receive 
eight doUai's in gold or silver, as the value thereof is regulated 
by Congress '? Will not all admit that we are not paid accord- 
ing to the law unless we receiv^e that value ? But, say gentlemen, 
gold and silver bear a premium in the market, and therefore 
any given amount, paid in the standard coins of the country, is 
overpaid to the extent of the premium upon the coins. Here 
rests the error. The premises are false, and the conclusion there- 
fore falls to the ground. Gold and silver do not, and cannot, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. QW 

properly speaking, bejir a premium. An American silver dollar 
can no more be worth one hundred and ten or one hundred and 
twenty-five cents, in this country, than a standard pound can 
weigh a pound and a quarter. The one thing is as impossible as 
the other. Both are themselves standards, the one of value and 
the other of quantity ; and the former can no more vary than the 
latter. The dollar is Avorth exactly one hundred cents. It is 
the measure of that value, and cannot be worth either more or 
less than that sum. It is itself the par of money. Whatever is 
above it bears a premium, and whatever is below it is at a dis- 
count. This error in computing the value of money and the 
value of our paper currency is so universal, that it is not singular 
this argument should appear plausible to most minds without a 
somewhat close examination. All the statements we see pub- 
lished adopt the value of the paper as the par of money; and 
because the gold and silver are more valuable and command a 
higher price in the market than paper, they are said to bear a 
premium. The error arises from adopting an erroneous standard 
for the ])ai" value. The paper is not par when gold and silver are 
worth more than it. They are the par and the paper is depreci- 
ated. A moment's reiiection will show every man that this is 
the true position. Why, then, it will be asked, are not the state- 
ments of the market value of our currency, daily published to the 
country, made upon the true and not upon a false basis ? The 
boards of brokers and bankers and dealers in money would pro- 
bably be able to account for the manner in which these state- 
ments are made. It is much more acceptable to them, and 
doubtless much more favorable to the circulation and credit of 
the depreciated bank paper, to use it as the par, the standard of 
value, and to present gold and silver at a premium, as being 
actually worth a tenth beyond its statute value, its value as a 
tender in the payment of debts. 

"A single fact which transpired in this city but a day or two 
since will show the practical effect of this mode of computing 
the value of money. A member of the Senate, within the last 
few days, related to me the following incident : The Senator 
stepped into a shop upon the avenue to purchase some small 
article. The price was given to him by the shopkeeper at eighty- 



612 Life and TniES of Silas Wright. 

seven and a half cents. He presented a dollar in silver to make 
payment, when he was informed that the price was given at 
eiu'hty-seven and a half cents nnder the expectation that payment 
wonld be made in paper, in 'shin-plasters,' as they are called, and 
that it was but seventy-live cents if paid in. specie, and he received 
a quarter of a dollar in change and the article he desired. W.-is 
this difference of price a premium upon the silver? No, sir. It 
was an addition to cover the depreciation of paper. The seventy- 
five cents was the value of the article in money. The eighty- 
seven and a half cents was the value in depreciated paper. This 
little incident shows us the tax which would be imposed upon the 
public creditors, including the officers of the government, if we 
were to pay them in a depreciated currency. It shows us that 
we should, at once, sink their compensations about one-sixth, as 
that would be the additional charge against them for every neces- 
sary of life, because they must make payment in a currency so 
much depreciated. It shows us also the immense tax which the 
whole community must pay so long as they are compelled to use 
a base currency; and shall we then be urged to adopt a standard 
of currency for the public treasury below the value of gold and 
silver ? 

"A third argument against the passage of this bill, urged with 
great zeal and earnestness by those who put it forth, is, that it 
will extend most fearfully the executive patronage of this gov- 
ernment; that it will tend to strengthen the executive arm, to the 
danger of public liberty itself. He would examine concisely this 
startling objection. The bill creates no new officers. It proposes 
to intrust the safe-keeping of the public funds with the officers 
who now collect them. These officers are all appointed by the 
President and Senate, by the President alone, or by the heads of 
some one of the executive departments. They are all public 
officers of the government, responsible to it and to the people 
for their official acts. They are all now removable at the pleasure 
of the President. The bill does not propose to change the mode 
of their appointment, or to increase their liability to dismission 
from office by the executive. In what way, then, does it increase 
the executive power over them, or strengthen that arm of the 
government for good or for evil ? He would take a case, the more 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 613 

clearly to illustrate his views; the collector of the port of New 
York, a place of high trust and responsibility already, and to be 
made much more so if this bill becomes a law, is appointed by the 
President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; lie 
is removable at the pleasure of the President witliout cause, 
* either proved or assigned; this is the relation of that officer to 
the executive branch of the government under the existing hiws. 
Does the bill before us propose to change that relation ? Not in 
any way whatever. It merely proposes to make that officer keep 
and disburse the money he collects, instead of handing it over to 
a bank for safe-keeping; and it will require that he should 
streno-then his official bond and sureties to meet the increased 
official responsibility. But would any gentleman explain to him 
liow the power or influence of the executive over the officer was 
to be increased by these proceedings. That power and influence 
could oidy be exerted in reference to his appointment to or 
removal from office; and the existing law upon that subject was 
not to be changed. The office was made no more valuable by 
this addition of duty and responsibility, and, therefore, the bill 
would cause no increase of a desire for the possession or reten- 
tion of it. 

" It was a mistake, then, of fact, that the executive patronage 
was increased, or the executive arm strengthened by the provi- 
sions of the bill. It was a delusion which gentlemen had per- 
mitted their imaginations to practice upon them, wliich had no 
foundation in the proposed law. This would be rendered more 
apparent by the fact that this argument was most urged by those 
who preferred a return to the system of deposits with the State 
banks. Had any gentleman, who had occupied a seat here for 
the last few years, or who had turned Ids attention at all to the 
proceedings of Congress since the public moneys were trans- 
ferred for safe-keeping from the late Bank of the United States 
to tlie State banks, forgotten the vivid pictures, daily drawn 
upon this floor, of the immense stride which had been taken 
by the executive power in the adoption of that system of 
deposits '? Were we not constantly told of the army of bank 
agents, bank officers and bank directors, persons unknown to 
the Constitution and the law, and not responsible to Congress 



614 ItiFE AND Times of Silas Wright. 

or tlie people, wliicli that system had brought within executive 
influence, and engaged in the service of the executive ? Who 
did not then feel that there was some force in these remarks ? 
And wlio that was a friend to the then administration did not 
struggle incessantly to procure the passage of some law which 
should bring that system of deposits within the power and con-' 
trol of Congress '? And are we now to be urged to return to that 
system, to re-enlist tliat numerous body of bank managers, and 
reconnect them witli the executive branch of the government, to 
prevent an extension of executive patronage and power, by the 
simple employment of officers of our own appointment, dircttly 
responsible to the people, and to the representatives of the people 
here ? The position was absurd. It was to urge us upon the 
very evil we were cautioned to avoid ; to embrace a danger 
existing in its worst form, to discharge ourselves from one of a 
merely imaginary character. 

" No, sir ; if gentlemen would take a calm and dispassionate 
view of this subject, they would see that the bill would increase 
immensely, fearfully, the executive responsibilities, not the execu- 
tive power. If the SJ^stem proposed be adopted, the people will 
hold the President responsible for nis selection of the officers to 
be intrusted with the safe-keeping of their treasure; and they 
will hold the head of the Treasury department responsible for 
an incessant and sleepless vigilance over these depositaries. This 
will be the influence the bill will exert upon the executive branch 
of the government. It will throw upon the executive officers a 
great increase of care and responsibility — not an increase of 
power or influence. 

" Indeed, so strongly had this increase of responsibility, even 
upon the minor executive officers, impressed itself upon the mind 
of one of the gentlemen who had addressed the Senate [Mr. 
Rives], as to induce him to entertain the apprehension that men 
of proper character, standing and responsibility could not be 
found willing to accept the trusts. For himself, he was almost 
ready to say that he wished he could entertain more apprehen- 
sion upon this point than the argument of the Senator had inspired 
him with. He had no fear of living to see that period when the 
lucrative and honoi'al)le and desirable offices of this government 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 615 

would go begging for incumbents; when candidates, of the most 
unquestioned qualifications in every sense, would not voluntarily 
present themselves, and conflict with each other for the places. 
At points where the emoluments of office did not present ade- 
quate temptation, the collections must be small and the trust 
light ; so that he was at perfect ease upon this point, and had 
only alluded to it to enforce his own position, tliat the bill was 
calculated to increase executive responsibility, not to extend 
executive power. 

"A fourth argument against the bill claimed a passing notice. 
It was that it would work the entire destruction of credit in the 
country. This appeared to him to be, most clearly, an objection 
springing from an excited imagination. What were the premises 
from which this frightful conclusion had been drawn? State 
them in their worst form and utmost extent, and what were they ? 
Tliat the government of the United States was, hereafter, to con- 
fine the safe-keeping of the public moneys to the hands of its 
own officers, and was gradually to discontinue the receipt of 
bank notes in payment of the public dues. These were the things 
proposed to be done. The effect of such a policy upon the credit 
and business of the local banking institutions of the country he 
had already fully discussed ; and, to his own satisfaction, had 
shown that its adoption would promote, and not injure, the use- 
fulness of those institutions, considered in the light of public 
institutions founded for the benefit of the people at large, 
and deserving credit and confidence precisely in proportion as 
they should confine their operations within their fixed means, 
and should discharge faithfully and promptly all the obligations 
imposed by their charters. In this light only was he disposed to 
discuss the claims of the local banks upon the country or the con- 
fidence of the people. The profits of the corporators was not a 
consideration to enter into a discussion like the present. It was 
a mere consequence of the faithful discharge of one of the high- 
est trusts which any government could delegate, the trust of 
making a currency for the people of the country; and if he had 
succeeded in showing that this trust could be more safely and 
perfectly executed without than with a fiscal connection with 
this government, ho had accomplished his object, and proved that 



616 Life and Taiss of Silas Wright. 

the just credit of these institutions was not to be injuriously 
atFected by the bill. 

" Who would contend that its provisions were calculated to 
injure any other description of credit ? Would not wealth and 
integrity receive the same confidence with the community, 
whether the funds of this government were kept in the State 
banks oi- in the hands of the officers of the people ? Would not 
industry and enterprise gain the same esteem, and command the 
same credit, wherever the government should choose to place its 
stronof box? Would neiarhbor cease to trust and confide in 
neighbor because bank notes were not to be I'eceived in payment 
of the public dues? Certainly not. The picture was an imagi- 
nary one, and this consequence of the passage of the bill, upon 
the credit between man and man, was not to be apprehended. 
It was the objection of an excited mind and not of sober reason. 

"An argument of a character very similar to that last noticed 
had proceeded from the same source. It was that the passage of 
this bill, the separation of the funds of the government from the 
banks and the gradual suspension of the receipt of their paper in 
payment of the public dues, would lead to a universal and exclu- 
sive metallic currency for the whole country in all its business 
operations. That it would lead to a currency equal in value to 
gold and silver, and convertible into gold and silver at pleasure, 
he hoped and believed. But that it would destroy the State 
banks and send us back to an exclusive metallic currency there 
was not the slightest reason for believing. If he had not labored 
in vain, in a former part of his argument he had shown that the 
efliect of this policy would be favorable to the banks, favorable 
to the certainty of their means, to a safe measure for their opera- 
tions and to the stability of their credit and confidence with the 
people. If these positions should prove to be true, there was no 
just fear that the banks would be destroyed or that banks char- 
tered by the States would not continue to exist. And surely, while 
banks of issue were in operation in the country, no one need fear 
the prevalence of an exclusive metallic cu.rrency; for nothing- 
was more certain than that bank paper and gold and silver of 
equal denominations could not circulate together. The paper 
might be made, for the general purposes of business, of equal 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. HI 7 

value with gold and silver; but while the one was the promise ol' 
a bank to pay and the other the means by which alone that pro- 
mise could be redeemed, and while it was the direct interest of 
the bank that the promise should take the place of tlie i-eal value 
and circulate in its stead, the one would be withdrawn from cii- 
culation and hoarded, and the other would be scattered upon the 
wings of the wind. 

"His fear was, that the whole operations of the public treasury 
would be inadequate to furnish a sufficient specie basis for our 
paper circulation. What were those operations in the aggre- 
gate, compared to the monetary operations of the country ? The 
Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Webster] had said they Avere 
estimated at from one and a half to tAvo per cent. Call them 
two per cent, call them five per cent, and will they distribute a 
quantity of tlie metals sufficient to sustain the immense super- 
structure of paper, amounting to the remaining ninety-five or 
ninety- eight per cent? And from what other source were we to 
look for an extension of our specie basis if not from the opera- 
tions of this government? Here, then, was the fear, and not 
that too extensive a metallic currency would be diffused among 
the people. 

" He would notice a single other objection to this system, and 
close his remarks upon this branch of the subject. It had been 
said that its effect would be to hoard vast amounts of cash capi- 
tal from the uses of business. How far was this effect to be 
anticipated ? When the revenues of the country were made to 
bear a just relation to its expenditures — a relation which he hoped 
our recent experience would induce us most rigidly to preserve 
for the future — there would be nothing to hoard, in the practical 
sense of that term. We should receive with one hand and dis- 
burse with the other. The payments into the public treasury, and 
the payments out of it, would be made in the same description of 
currency ; and what was taken from the uses of business by the 
receipts, would be given back to those uses in the disbursements, 
without material delay. It was true that the great extent of our 
territory, the great number of points at which both receipts and 
disbursements were to be made, and the wide distance of their 
location from each other and from the treasury here, keep a 



618 Life and Tuies of Silas Weight. 

large sum in suspense, and in transitu, during the whole time. 
That sum might be liberally estimated at from three to five mil- 
lions, and it was tlie whole amount which the ordinary operations 
of the treasury would, in any sense, hoard — the whole amount 
which it would withdraw from the uses of business, when the 
revenues and expenditure of the government should be justly 
measured together. This same sum was now exactly similarly 
employed, and was suspended in the deposit banks to await the 
presentation of outstanding drafts ; that is, it would be so sus- 
pended if the banks were in a condition to fulfill their obliga- 
tions, and meet the drafts of the treasury in s])ecie or its equiva- 
lent. 

" But it might be said that, when our revenues should again 
become abundant, and exceed our expenditures, so that another 
surplus should accumulate, this system of deposits would neces- 
sarily lead to hoarding. This consequence he most cheerfully 
admitted, and he considered it one of the strongest merits of the 
system. He hoped never again to see the time when a surplus 
revenue should afflict us; but if that time did ever again come, 
it must i^roceed from an excess of impoilations, and a renewal 
of the speculations in our vast public domain. In that case he 
wished to see the excess of the revenue hoarded, closely locked 
up from the vises of the trading community, as the most efticient, 
speedy and certain check to the overtrading and speculations. 

" What, he would ask, would have been the surplus of revenue 
during the late excesses, had the accunmlations of money in the 
public treasury, paid for duties and lands, been hoarded then, 
and not surrendered to the uses of the customers of the banks ? 
That surplus, under the system of deposits then in use, reached 
an amount beyond forty millions of dollars. Does any one sup- 
pose it would have reached one-third of that sum if the gold 
and silver had been demanded in payment of the public dues, 
and closely locked up in the public depositories ? No, sir; a 
pressiire upon the money market would have been produced, and 
the excesses arrested before you would have hoarded ten millions 
of coin by this process. What an infinite benefit to the country 
would have been produced by such an action. We should have 
V»een saved from the almost incurable evils of a surplus revenue, 



Life and Times of Silas Wriciht. G39 

and of its practical distribution among the States of the Union, 
and, what would have been of far more importance, we should 
have been saved from this tremendous revulsion which the excesses 
of credit have brought upon us. 

" What, sir, has been our own agency in this national calamity ? 
Our revenue was accumulating millions n]M)ii millions beyond 
our wants. We placed it in the banks for safe-keeping, exacted 
from them interest for its use, and thus compelled them to make 
loans upon it in the ordinary course of their business. It was a 
time of plenty, and their own means were full, but yet they must 
use ours to indemnify them for the use which the law compelled 
them to pay. Could any system have been better devised to })ro- 
mote the excesses of which we now complain ? Every dollar col- 
lected toward the public revenue added, not one dollar simi)ly, 
but, being used as capital, two or three dollars, to the loans wdiicli 
the cupidity of the banks stimulated them to make. Hence the 
evil, so far as the funds of the government were concerned, pro- 
moted its own increase, and so it must ever be while the banks 
are made the depositories of the public moneys. Sliould we not, 
then, dismiss the idea that a hoarding of capital is to be a dreaded 
evil of the proposed system; so regulate our legislation that the 
revenues and expenditures, in times of stability and regularity of 
business, will meet each other; and desire to hoard, wdien excess 
in trade or credit or speculation threaten to disturb the healthful 
equilibrium of the currency, and to plunge us into reverses such 
as we are now experiencing ? For himself, he had no hesitation 
upon the subject. If a regulator of the general currency of the 
country was within the power of Congress, he thought this that 
regulator, and this action of the proposed system of separation 
from the banks seemed to him to be more valuable than almost 
any feature in it. 

" In addition to the remarks he had made and the objections 
he had attempted to answer, he found it to be his duty to notice 
a single feature of the bill, which had been the subject of much 
apprehension and criticism. He referred to the provision for the 
security of the pul)lic moneys in the hands of the depositaries 
proposed to be established. The committee had here introduced 
a guard of a most i-igid character, new to him, and, he believed, 



620 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

new to our laws. It was that of making a use of the moneys a 
criminal offense, punishable by fine and imprisonment, in addition 
to the usual pecuniary liabilities. Their object was to draw the 
characters of the officers into security for the public, and to 
interpose that guaranty against an abuse, of their trust. He con- 
sidered this feature of the bill of vital importance to its success- 
ful operation, although the usual provisions for sureties and 
pecuniary liabilities were full and complete without it. 

"The Senator from Delaware [Mr. Bayard] had expended 
mucli of liis argument in showing that the public funds would 
be insecure in such keeping; and, to fortify himself in his posi- 
tion, he had exhibited to us the long list of defaulting public 
officers which is annually laid before us, and which comprises 
every defaulter from the commencement of the government to 
the present day. This was a part of the history of our country 
most unpleasant and painful, and he could not dwell upon it with 
any pleasure; but the Senator, in bringing it to his aid upon this 
occasion, seemed to have forgotten that all these defalcations had 
liappened under an established system of bank deposits, State or 
national, and, therefore, did not go a step to show either the 
danger of a permanent keeping and disbursement of the public 
moneys by the public officers, or the greater security of a system 
of deposit in banks than of a keeping by the officers themselves. 
The cases cited did go to show that there would sometimes be 
defaulting officers; and he did not Hatter himself that the present 
bill, or any other which human ingenuity could form, would con- 
stitute a perfect exemption of the government from such losses, 
or a perfect security to the public funds in any condition. One 
thing, however, was clear, and would be conceded by all, which 
was, that the depositaries proposed to be established by this bill 
would not all fail at once, and thus effectually block the wheels 
of the treasury, with an abundance of means in its possession in 
case those means could be commanded. Such was its present 
condition under the system of State bank deposits. With mil- 
lions in the banks, the treasury had not a dollar at command, and 
is now, at this moment, compelled to resort to the public credit 
to carry on the government. N"o such revulsion to the treasury 
could be experienced under the system of deposits proposed to 



Life and Times of Silas Witiaiir. C)'l\ 

be adopted; and even if we should occasionally lose a small sum 
by a defaulting officer, we should not be driven to the expense of 
extra calls of Congress iii consequence of such defaults. 

"He would not detain the Senate to add anything further to 
this branch of the argument. The President, in his message, had 
placed the ordinary aspect of the subject too clearly before Con- 
gress and the country to admit of confirmation by anything he 
could add to these forcible and practicable views. 

" This closed the examination he proposed to make of the plan 
of the administration, for the exercise of the incidental powers 
of Congress over the general currency of the country, and of tiie 
prominent objections to that plan ; and he would now pass to 
the alternatives proposed by those who differed from the Presi- 
dent. 

" The first of these was the plan proposed by the honorable 
Senator from Virginia [Mr. Rives], which, in substance, is a 
return to the system of State bank deposits, connected with the 
general receptibility, upon certain conditions, of the notes of the 
St^ate banks in payment of the public dues. What he had 
already said in reference to the administration plan would excuse 
him from any further discussion of this proposition than what 
related to its limitations. The proposition was, in substance, simi- 
lar to one formerly introduced into this body by the same distin- 
guished Senator, and upon that occasion it underwent a full dis- 
cussion. It was not, therefore, a proposition new to the body ; 
but as he had not taken part in its discussion then, and as it was 
now brought in conflict with a system he approved, he felt it to 
be his duty to test its efficiency to accomplish its proposed 
objects. 

"Those objects seem to be two: the first of which was to 
strengthen and sustain the State banks and facilitate their return 
to specie payments; and the second to extend and strengthen 
the specie basis for the paper circulation of the banks by expel- 
ling from circulation small bank-notes. 

" The first object was proposed to be accomplished by a con- 
tinuance of the public deposits with these banks, and by making 
their notes, when redeemed with specie, receivable in payment of 
the public dues. He had already discussed both these points as 



622 Life and Times of ^Silas Wright. 

ffilly as be proposed to do it, under the head of the influence 
upon the banks of the passage of the bill before the Senate. He 
had there given his reasons for the opinion that even a connec- 
tion, as depositories, between the State banks and the national 
treasury was injurious to the banks; that if the connection ag 
depositories did not exist, the receptibility of the notes of the 
banks in payment of the public dues was a matter of little prac- 
tical interest to them, because the notes so received must be 
immediately presented for payment and could not be perma- 
nently retained in safe-keeping; and that, if the separation 
between the banks and the treasury was to be made perpetual, 
the present was the most favorable time, so far as the banks are 
concerned, to make that declaration. 

"It therefore remained for him simply and concisely to exa- 
mine the efticacy of the Senator's plan to exclude small notes and 
extend the circulation of specie. 

"These two great objects were proposed to be accomplished 
by the enactment that no note of any State bank should be 
received in payment of the public dues, if such bank should, after 
a specified day, issue notes below a specified denomination. The 
restriction is made to commence at the passage of the act, with a 
limitation of notes not below five dollars; after the year 1839 no 
notes are to be issued below ten dollars; and after the year 1841 
no notes below twenty dollars; and the receptibility of the bank 
paper by the public treasury is made dependent upon an obser- 
vance by the banks of these restrictions. No alteration of the 
present bank deposit law is proposed, and that compels the 
banks, as a condition of their participation in that patronage, 
not to issue notes below the denomination of ten dollars. Nei- 
ther the deposit law nor the proposition of the honorable Senator 
appeals to the controlling power of State legislation to make them 
effective. Neither could do so with propriety, as both are mere 
regulations of federal legislation addressed to the interests of the 
State banking institutions. This address to sucli institutions is 
always the safe one, so far as their power of action is within 
their own control; for no principle can be more safely depended 
upon than tliat a moneyed incorporation, by whatever authority 
brought into existence, will govern its action by its interests. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 623 

"It is ill this single sense, then, that the practical results to be 
expected from the adoption of the plan of the Senator from Vir- 
ginia are to be examined. How far will the interests of the 
State banking institutions of the country induce them to sub- 
ject their action to his proposed restrictions ? The inducement 
offered is the receptibility of their paper in the payment of iJie 
public dues. The disability is that of issuing no small notes. 
He had before suggested; as the result of his reflections, that, 
unaccompanied by a portion of the public deposits, the recep- 
tibility of the notes of a local bank in payment of the public 
dues was a very trifling, if not a very questionable, boon. That 
impression contidently remained. He therefore concluded that 
the interests of no banks would induce them, voluntarily, to 
subject themselves to the restrictions proposed, except such as 
should be selected as depositories. The value of this patronage 
would be greatly impaired if the notes of the deposit banks were 
not so receivable. These institutions, therefore, woidd bring 
themselves within the restrictions and within the beneflts of tlie 
system. What, then, would be the effect, in practice, upon the 
currency of the country ? There are now some eight hundred 
State banks in organization. The greatest number selected under 
the late deposit law was about one-tenth of the whole ; and it is 
known at the treasury, and will be readily seen by all who will 
make a practical examination of the subject, that cme of the 
greatest evils of that law was the large number of banks which 
its provisions compelled the Secretary of the Treasury, in the 
then bloated state of the public funds, to select as depositories. 
From thirty to forty is the largest number which the convenience 
of the receipts and disbursements and the safe management of 
the public funds can ever require. But suppose the highest 
number heretofore employed should be retained, still we should 
have more than seven hundred banks not submitting themselves 
to the proposed restrictions, and consequently not restrained, 
except by their charters, from the issue of small notes. Go far- 
ther, and suppose that the interests of one-half of all the banks 
of the country should induce them to come within the provisions 
of the proposed bill ; the field for the circulation of small paper 
would only be made richer for those which did not come in, and. 



624 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

until the established laws of curreucy be radically changed, and 
silver dollars and half eagles can circulate in common with one 
and live-dollar bank notes, the four hundred banks would make 
much more, from this circulation, than from any additions we can 
make to their business by receiving their notes. The induce- 
ment which the proposition holds out is wholly inadequate to the 
accomplishment of the objects proposed, and not a dollar will be 
added to the specie circulation of the country under it. These 
considerations rendered this plan less desirable to him than that 
proposed by the President. 

"True, it might be said that the plan of the President did not 
act upon the banks by way of restraint upon the amount or 
description of their issues. It was true as to the description of 
their issues. That was left to State legislation, the source from 
which they derived their existences, and to w^hich belonged the 
limitation of their powers, so far as they were to be limited by 
leo-islation. The plan of the President sought to act upon these 
institutions in a different way, and by a more powerful lever. 
Specie was their life-blood, and the creation of a demand for it 
was the only efficient control over tjiem. Bring the public reve- 
nues, then, to a specie standard, and you most effectually limit 
the amount of issues of the banks, so far as your operations can 
impose such a limit. Make your disbursements in gold and 
silver; and, although the small bank paper will displace it, your 
continued and perpetual action will draw the same specie again 
from the banks, and will thus keep an amount equal to your 
receipts and disbursements in a constantly active state. In this 
way alone, in his judgment, is it in the power of this government 
to expand the specie basis for our immense paper circulation. 

" He could not see that the action of the bill proposed by the 
Senator from Virginia would accomplish this object, Avhile it did 
appear to him that a perfect separation from the banks, and a 
gradual return to a metallic currency for the operations of the 
national treasury, might reach it. 

" The only other alternative which had been presented was a 
national bank. No distinct proposition, in a legislative form, for 
such an institution, was before the Senate ; but the debate had 
developed the fact that such an institution was the favorite alter- 



Life and Thies of Silas Weight. 625 

native of a large majority of the body, and therefore he made 
this allusion to it. It was not his purpose to discuss it in any 
manner. In the absence of any distinct proposition, and after 
the recent expression of the Senate upon that point, he could 
not feel warranted in taking the time even to reply to the argu- 
ments which had been advanced in favor of this plan. The whole 
subject had constituted a topic of constant discussion before the 
country for years, and he could not hope, at this late day, to give 
any new ideas upon it to the Senate or to the public. 

"He had upon his notes several other replies which he had 
intended to make, but the lateness of the hour, and the full dis- 
cussion which every important point in the debate had received 
from others, would induce him to omit them, with a single excep- 
tion. 

"The honorable Senator from Virginia [Mr. Rives] had. seemed 
to suppose that nothing had transpired to weaken the confidence 
of those who had formerly favored the system of State bank 
deposits. He was one who had favored that system, when it was 
adopted by the executive in 1833-34. He then expressed his con- 
fidence in the ability and fidelity of the State banks to discharge 
the trusts confided to them. At that time he entertained fully 
and honestly the confidence he expressed in those institutions. 
Their subsequent conduct had gone far to convince him that his 
confidence was excessive and misplaced. He would not say that 
that system of deposits had entirely failed, as that seemed to be 
a point of debate and question, but he would say that the banks 
had failed to comply with their obligations ; that both the 
government and the people had been reduced to extremities by 
this failure on their part ; that we found ourselves here, at this 
unseasonable period, in consequence of it ; and that, in view of 
these facts, he heard with some surpi-ise the declaration, confi- 
dently pronounced, that nothing had taken place to authorize a 
change of opinion as to the safety of that system. 

" He had been repeatedly published to the country as grossly 
inconsistent for supporting and sustaining that system of deposits 
in 1834, and for failing to support it now. He did not feel the 
force of the charge ; but, whether inconsistent or not, when con- 
vinced of his error, he was most cheerful to retract it. Time had 
40 



626 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

shown that he then possessed a confidence in the banks which 
they had not sustained, and which he was bound to presume they 
could not sustain. Was he, for the sake of consistency, or for 
any other cause, to assume to entertain his former confidence, 
when every foundation for it had been swept away by the vohin- 
tary action of the banks themselves? No, sir, such was not his 
course. He left the defense of such a position to those who 
could see no difference between sound specie-paying banks and 
banks which refused to pay specie upon their promises; between 
banks which promptly, upon demand, fulfilled all their obliga- 
tions to the public and the national treasury, and banks which 
complied with their engagements to neither." 

At tlie conclusion of the debate, on the 4th of October, 
1837, the bill passed the Senate by the following vote : 

" Yeas — Messrs. Allen, Benton, Brown, Buchanan, Calhoun, 
Clay of Alabama, Fulton, Grundy, Hubbard, King of Alabama, 
Linn, Lyon, Morris, Niles, Norvell, Pierce, Roane, Robinson, 
Sevier, Smith of Connecticut, Strange, Walker, Wall, Williams, 
Wright and Young — 26. 

^^JVai/s — Messrs. Bayard, Black, Clay of Kentucky, Clayton, 
Crittenden, Davis, Kent, King of Georgia, Knight, McKean, 
Nicholas, Prentiss, Robbins, Smith of Indiana, Southard, Swift, 
Tallmadge, Tipton, Webster and White — 20." 

It was sent to the House, where it was laid upon the 
table by a vote of 120 to 107. 

There was no further action on this subject at that 
session. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 627 



Chapter LXV. 

OTHER MEASURES INTRODUCED INTO THE SENATE AT THE 
SPECIAL SESSION IN 1837. 

After the failure of nearly all the banks to redeem their 
bills, importing merchants encountered great difficulties 
in obtaining currency receivable by law at the custom- 
houses for duties. This led to an application to Congress 
for authority to deposit goods, on their arrival, in public 
stores. Mr. Wright reported a bill for this purpose, 
which did not then become a law. But an act was passed 
to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to post- 
pone, for a limited time, the collection of duty bonds, 
and to give a credit of three and six months for the 
duties on goods imported by the first of November then 
next. 

Mr. Weight also reported a bill to revoke the charters 
of all banks in the District of Columbia which should 
not resume specie payments within sixty days, and should 
not cease within thirty days to pay out bills of banks 
which did not redeem them in specie; and that said banks 
should, within sixty days, commence redeeming their notes 
under ten dollars, and should forthwith cease to deal in 
bills under five dollars. This bill indicated Mr. Wright' s 
views concerning banks not redeeming their bills in specie 
and his dislike to a currency of small bills. It did not, 
however, become a law at that session. 

Mr. Wright also introduced a bill for the adjustment 
of claims of the government upon the late deposit banks. 
It authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to continue to 
withdraw public money in them, whether standing to the 
credit of the United States or any officer of the govern- 



628 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

ment, in a manner convenient to tlie banks as he should 
deem consistent with the wants of the government. In 
case the banks should not comply with the requisitions 
of the Secretary, then he was directed to institute suits 
against them. The Secretary was also directed to require 
additional security from these banks. This bill became 
a law. Under this it is understood that the Secretary 
secured and received all the moneys due from these 
deposit banks, so that the government did not eventually 
lose anything by them. 

The deposit, as well as other banks, having refused to 
redeem theu' bills or pay what they owed the government, 
except in depreciated and unconvertible paper, there were 
no means of meeting tlie national engagements. No 
officer of the government could be lawfully paid his 
salary or expenses, nor was there any means of meeting 
our engagements to the army or navy. Instead of seek- 
ing relief through a loan, the administration preferred 
resorting to treasury notes. Mr. Wright reported a bill 
for this j)urpose, which passed both Houses, for not to 
exceed $10,000,000, and became a law on the 12th of 
October, 1837. 

Here we have the astonishing spectacle of a government 
having, in the middle of the previous year, so much 
money that it actually distributed some $28,000,000 to 
relieve itself from its abundance, and resorted to efforts 
for the reduction of its income, actually reduced to bor- 
rowing in order to avoid acts of actual bankruptcy by 
refusing to pay its lawful demands. Mr. Wkight used 
to speak of this as one of the striking features of a paper- 
money system. His views, at length, on banks and -the 
paper-money contrivance, are fully and strikingly given 
in seven articles published in the St. Lawrence Republi- 
can, in 1837, and fi'om which the author gave extended 
extracts in a previous chapter. The untoward conse- 
quences of excessive issues of a paper currency, even by 



LiBE AND TUIES OF SiLAS WrIGHT. 629 

the government, exhibited during the war of the rebellion, 
are remarkable confirmations of his great financial sagacity 
as displayed in these articles. Our national debt has 
been nearly doubled by resorting to a paper system 
instead of using gold and silver, which Secretary Chase 
said could be borrowed abroad upon five per cent 
interest. 



630 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter LXVI. 

CASE OF RICHARD W. MEADE 

The claim of Mr. Meade had often been before the 
Senate and received its affirmative action. He had been 
onr consul at Cadiz, in Spain, and had had extensive 
transactions with the Spanish government, and was 
largely its creditor. When we purchased Florida, the 
treaty provided a fund of $5,000,000 for the payment of 
claims of American citizens upon Spain, A commission 
was appointed to adjust these and distribiite the fund. 
Meade presented bis claim to the commission, and a certi- 
ficate of a Spanish official that his government owed him 
a specified sum. This they held was not sufficient proof, 
and requu'ed evidence of the transactions occasioning the 
indebtedness, which was not furnished before the expira- 
tion of their powers and the distribution of the sum pro- 
vided among other claimants. He then appealed to 
Congress. At the request of Gen. Jackson, Mr. Wright 
gave the case a long and patient investigation, and arriv(xl 
at the conclusion that the claim was not valid against our 
government. When the bill for Meade's relief came up 
in the Senate, Mr. Weight presented the facts as he 
understood them and the conclusions he had formed at 
length. He gave a succinct history of this case from tlie 
time of Meade's first visit to Cadiz, in 1803, up to the 
period when the claim was made on this country, under 
the provisions of the treaty of 1819 with Spain, from 
which he maintained that Meade had no well-founded 
claim upon the United States, but that it was between 
himself and the government of Spain, growing out of 
transactions of a private nature. The bill, however, 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 63X 

passed tlie Senate by a vote of 23 to 16. It failed in the 
House as it had done before. 

This claim has since been before Congress several times. 
When the Court of Claims was established, it was pre- 
sented there, where it was resisted by the author, as gov- 
ernment solicitor, in an elaborate brief, and the decision 
was against it. A motion was subsequently made for a 
reargument, since which the author has not heard of it, 
though it is probable it is still an outstanding claim 
against the government. 

Mk. Wright to his Brother-in-Law, Lucius Moody. 

In this letter we have a specimen of Mr. Wright's 
humorous correspondence, diifering, in most respects, 
from his ordinary correspondence. 

"Washington, I9th Januari/, 1838. 

" My Dear Brother. — Your letter, with the inclosure, came 
to us more than a week since, but I have been too deeply engaged 
to allow me time to answer it. I have not now time to write a 
long letter, and as you never do that yourself, I am sure you do 
not wish to read one. We are much more comfortably situated 
this winter than when you was with us during the fall. We 
have now two small rooms upon the second floor of the house, 
one of which is our bed-room and Clarissa's working-room, and 
the other is my oftice. Both have good fire-places, and fires when 
we want them; and as they adjoin each other, and are wholly 
disconnected from any other room in the house, they are very 
pleasant. We have four other ladies in the mess besides Clarissa, 
and as they are, as yet, perfectly friendly and very neighborly, 
the separation of rooms is very convenient, as it enables Clarissa 
to have her occasional visitors from the mess in her own room, 
while I can be undisturbed by the discussions which you know 
must always be carried on at such meetings. 

" Time may prove that there are more inconveniences con- 
nected with this separation of business and labor, more than 
counterbalancing the benefits, though I hope not. It is true, 



632 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

when I closed my labors in my room last evening, at rather a 
late hour, and attempted to get to my bed, I found myself locked 
out, and not having any bed in my own room, the prospect for a 
while was rather discouraging. Yet the weather was very warm, 
so warm that we had required no fires in our rooms during the 
evening, and a berth upon the carpet would not have been as 
inconvenient as in a colder night. By rattling the door, how- 
ever, for a few times, I gained admittance, and Clarissa, with all 
the apparent honesty in the world, assured me that she had fas- 
tened the door to undress, and had gone to bed and to sleep 
without thinking to unfasten it. During the time she was telling 
this story I kept my position firmly in the open door, and not 
finding the old bachelor of our mess attempting to rush out past 
me, nor being able to see him in the room, I made the best of it 
I could, assumed to believe her whole story, and here the matter 
rested. I do not, in truth, think he was in the room, because I 
did not see and did not hear him there before I went to sleep, 
which was very soon after I went to bed; but you will admit that, 
at the hour of eleven o'clock p. m., it was somewhat a disturb- 
ing consideration to find the key turned upon you by your wufe. 

" Nonsense aside. Clarissa has improved in health since we 
left home more than our hopes or wishes would have permitted 
us to believe she could have done when we did leave. We have 
had two or three days, last past, of most unnatural, and I fear 
unhealthy, weather. It has been about as warm as dog days, and 
much such weather in character. During that time she has not 
felt quite as well; but for six or seven weeks before that her 
improvement seemed to be constant and regular, though not very 
rapid. She has gained strength so that she walks a mile out and 
back without unreasonable fatigue, and this evening, if the wind 
does not blow too severely, we propose to walk to the theatre 
and see Mr, Booth in Richard III. I am perfectly well, and have 
enough that I ought to do, and much more than I do attend to 
properly. 

" We had letters from Horace this morning. He is entirely 
well and apparently in good spirits. Our last letters from home 
informed us that they were all well there, but I believe we have 
not heard directly since about a week since. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 633 

" We have been looking with great anxiety to the revolution- 
ary movements in your Province and Lower Canada. I have not 
for a moment anticipated an effective revolution, but I have 
found that the thing had gone so far as to work great injury to 
some worthy and good radicals among you. One or two letters 
which I have received from our friend Norton have induced me 
to fear that he might be injured in property, if not otherwise, by 
the disturbances. I have wi'itten to him at Toronto, but was 
really afraid to write, as he told me his letters '/vould be opened 
and examined at the post-office. 

" We have heard that you had closed your services on board 
the Great Britain and were to take charge of another boat of 
Mr. Hamilton's in the spring, and that, to be more in the way 
of that duty, you was also, in the spring, to remove your resi- 
dence to Lewiston. Tell us if this news is true, and, if it be, 
when you expect to remove up stream. 

" Tell us also what you know, if anything, about the place of 
residence, situation and circumstances of our Mary Dawdle. All 
we have heard of her since we left home is through Charlotte 
Hunter, and she said her information came from Julia. 

" Tell us also how that fat boy, Lucius Horace, comes on, 
and whether he is improving in a manner which will authorize 
the expectation that he too is to be advanced from a clerk to a 
captain in the spring. 

" Do write more frequently, and, if we do not give you letter 
for letter, we will give you documents for the balance. 

" Clarissa sends her love to Julia and the boy. 

" Most truly yours, 

"SILAS WRIGHT, Jr. 
*' Mr. Lucius Moody." 



634 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter LXVII. 

INDEPENDENT TREASURY BILL. 

Early in the second session of the twenty-fifth Congress 
Mr. Wright again introduced his bill, entitled "A bill 
to impose additional duties, as depositaries, upon certain 
public officers, to appoint receivers-general of public 
money and to regulate the safe-keeping, transfer and dis- 
bursement of the public moneys of the United States," 
commonly called the "sub-treasury bill." It again 
underwent a rigid scrutiny and a long discussion. Mr. 
Weight, on the 31st of January, 1838, addressed the 
Senate as follows : 

" Mr. Wright said he regretted that it would be necessary for 
him to impose a more severe tax upon the time and patience of 
the Senate than he had ever before been compelled to impose, 
since he had been honored Avith a seat in the body. He had 
hoped, therefore, that he should have been able to reach the sub- 
ject at an earlier hour in the morning; but, as it was, he would 
endeavor to conclude with the sitting of the day. 

"He said he entered upon the debate with a painful conscious- 
ness of his inability to do justice to the position he held in refer- 
ence to the measure upon the table. The discussion of it must 
involve questions of the highest importance in politics, of the 
most pervading interest in finance, and, as he thought, of equal 
magnitude in the morals of government. These questions were 
to be discussed, deliberated upon and decided by the Senate; and 
upon him had fallen the duty of opening such a debate before 
that hio;h tribunal. 

" Could he call to his aid talents, experience, learning, powers 
of argument and perspicuity of language, such as were possessed 
and at the command of many of the distinguished Senators whom 
he knew he must meet in opposition to the bill, he should feel- a 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 635 

gratifying confidence that he could contend successfully and 
could triumphantly refute every objection. As it was, he was 
consoled by the reflection that he should be followed in the 
debate by other Senators equally able and equally distinguished, 
and who would only have occasion to ask of him that he should 
not injure a cause which must rest its defense with them. He 
would most cheerfully promise them that he would not inten- 
tionally throw obstacles in their way, and he would entreat the 
Senate to judge of the bill from its provisions, which he consid- 
ered sound and salutary, and not from the weaknesses they 
would not fail to discover in his attempt to support them. 

"Justice to himself required another preliminary remark. But 
a few months had passed since they were engaged there in the 
discussion of this same measure, or rather, perhaps, he should 
say, of a measure precisely similar in its great leading features. 
In that discussion he had taken a part, and if he should be found 
upon this occasion repeating ideas and urging arguments which 
he had then advanced, the reason and his apology must be 
sought in the identity of the subjects, and not in a disposition 
on his part to trouble the Senate now with remarks to which 
they had once done him the honor to listen. 

" He said the bill was based upon two great leading principles, 
and that all its provisions, detailed and numerous as they were, 
became necessary, in the judgment of the committee, to carry 
those principles successfully into practice. These principles were : 

'■'■First. A practical and bona fide separation between the pub- 
lic treasure, the money of the people, and the business of indi- 
viduals- and incorporations, and especially between this money 
and the business of banking. 

'■'■Second. A gradual change of the currency to be received in 
payment of the public dues, from that authorized to be received 
by the resolution of Congress of 1816, to the legal currency of 
the United States. 

" The material details of the bill applicable to each of these 
objects it would be his duty to notice; and as the task must be 
tedious and uninteresting to him, and much more so to the 
Senate, he would abridge it as much as justice to the measure 
would permit. 



636 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

"As applicable to the first object, the bill commenced with the 
establishment of offices and vaults, at designated points, for the 
safe-keeping of the public money. The first section defined and 
established the treasury of the United States, and placed it 
under the care and charge of the Treasurer of the United States; 
and, singular as it had appeared to him, and as he thought it 
would appear to most of the constituents of every Senator, this 
was the first attempt, so far as his researches had enabled him to 
discover, to establish, by law, a national treasuiy. Should this 
bill pass, and this section be retained, he was confident it would 
be the first act of the Congress of the United States which had 
given, not a name, but ' a local habitation,' to this most import- 
ant institution. As the object of the bill is to place the funds 
of the government hereafter under the control of the public 
treasury, and not of private banking institutions, it seemed to 
the committee peculiarly proper that its first enactment should 
be to define and establish that treasury. 

"The second section constituted the mint at Philadelphia, and 
the branch mint at New Orleans; also, places for the deposit and 
safe-keeping of the public money collected at those places, or 
transferred to them by the direction of the Secretary of the 
Treasury. The treasurers of the mints respectively were assigned 
to the charge and custody of the moneys there deposited. 

"The third section directed the preparation of suitable offices 
and vaults in the custom-houses now erecting at New York and 
Boston, for the deposit and safe-keeping of the public money at 
those points, and for the use of the officers to have the custody 
of those moneys; and the fourth section provided for the erection 
of two independent offices and vaults, for the same purpose, the 
one to be located at Charleston, in the State of South Carolina, 
and the other at St. Louis, in the State of Missouri. 

" It would not require any remark from him to satisfy the 
mind of every Senator of the propriety of selecting the seat of 
government as the place of location for the national treasury, or 
that the points he had named upon the Atlantic coast, as well as 
New Orleans, were places where so important portions of the 
public revenue were collected, and from which so great a share 
of the public disbursements were now, in fact, made, or could be 



Life and TniES of Silas Wright. 637 

made with increased convenience to the treasury and to the public 
creditors, as to rendei- them all })roper places for the location of 
offices for the safe-keeping of the public money, in case any such 
offices were to be provided at the public expense, owned by the 
government, and kept in the cliarge of its officei-s. Another 
reason also existed, and which was conclusive with the commit- 
tee, as to the selection of Washington, Philadeljdiia, New Orleans, 
New York and Boston. Public buildings of a lire-proof charac- 
ter were already erected, or now being erected, at the public 
expense, and for the i)ublic use, at all those places, in which suffi- 
cient rooms, offices and vaults, for the purpose contemplated, 
could be secured without any material addition to the expense 
incurred, and to be incurred, upon the buildings. It was also 
his duty to inform the Senate that, since the bill was reported, 
the committee had learned that the government now owned a 
custom-house at Charleston, and that the information jyossessed 
at the Treasury department authorized the belief that suitable 
rooms for offices could be had in that building, thus rendering it 
necessary to construct a vault only, instead of an independent 
office, as the bill contemplated, at that place. He had prepared 
an amendment to the bill, to make it conform to this state of 
facts, Avhicli he would send to the chair before he resumed his 
seat. 

"As to the selection of St. Louis, some diversity of opinion 
might exist; but the committee had fixed upon that place because, 
from all the information they had been able to collect, they 
believed it to be the point from which the principal part of our 
heavy disbursements upon the western frontier were made. They 
were informed that a very large proportion of the money paid, 
and to be paid, annually, to the Indians west of the Mississippi, 
and the principal part of the disbursements at the various military 
posts upon the western frontier, were received by the various 
disbursing officers at tliis town, and that, therefore, large accu- 
mulations of public money were rendered necessary at this point, 
to meet these payments. This seemed to them to require an 
office for safe-keeping, and an officer or agent of the government, 
of some kind, there ; and the place was selected more, perhaps, 
in consequence of the heavy disbursements made from, than the 



638 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

amount of collections at it. Still, their information was that the 
money collected at many of the western, and especially the north- 
western, land offices could be more conveniently transferred to, 
and accumulated at, that point than at any other upon that 
frontier. 

" The fifth section of the bill, he said, provided for the appoint- 
ment of four additional salary officers, and which, in the draft 
of the bill, the committee had — to distinguish them from the 
receivers of public money at the various land offices — denominated 
'receivers-general of public money.' These officers were to be 
appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent 
of the Senate, as other officers of like importance were appointed; 
were to hold their office for the same terms of four years ; and 
were to be located, one at New York, one at Boston, one at 
Charleston and one at St. Louis, to take the charge of the offices 
and vaults for the safe-keeping of the public money at those 
points respectively, and of the money placed therein. 

" He was well aware that this was a feature of the bill not 
calculated to be popular, upon a slight examination, and that it 
was not palatable to some of the friends of the measure gene- 
rally. It was not his purpose to discuss this provision at large, 
in this place, as the course he had marked out for himself would 
require that he should again recur to it; but a few remarks upon 
the necessity of some provision of the sort wex*e called for here. 
It was indispensably necessary to the operations of the treasuiy 
that it should have agencies of some description at these points. 
The collections and disbursements at them all made this impera- 
tive, and if it was designed to discontinue the banks as fiscal 
agents, some other must be substituted. This would be appa- 
rent to all, merely from recurring to the names of the places, 
and to their importance as commercial towns. It was true that, 
in the bill reported by the committee, at the extra session of 
Congress in September, no provision was made for this addition 
to the existing officers of the Treasury department. The duties 
now proposed to be assigned to these new officers were, by that 
bill, devolved upon the respective collectors of the customs at 
the places named ; but it was then stated to the Senate by him- 
self, in his place, that this and many other matters of detail were 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 639 

purposely omitted, that the bill then reported might be made as 
simple as possible, and embody the great principles intended to 
be secured by it; knowing, as the committee did know, the strong 
desire and determination of both Houses of Cong-ress to limit 
that session within the shortest possible period which the public 
business would allow. They believed that these details, including 
as well the provisions of the sections before noticed as the one 
now under discussion, and others which follow, would be calcu- 
lated to protract discussion, delay action, and thus either extend 
the session or prevent the final passage of the bill. They were 
then convinced that the recommendations of the President and 
Seci'etary of the Treasury, as to the appointment of these addi- 
tional officers, would have to be carried out, but, in the then 
almost suspended state of our foreign trade, they did not believe 
that the operations of the treasury would suffer for the want of 
them during the very short vacation which was to intervene 
between that and the present session of Congress ; and it was 
then intimated that the defects in that bill could he supplied now. 
" The inquiries which the committee have since made, not only 
at the Treasury department, but at some of the places named, have 
proved to their entire satisfaction that this addition of officers 
will be required; that the collectors of the customs at these places, 
or certainly at some of them, are already charged with more oner" 
ous and responsible duties than any one man, whatever may be 
his industry and capacity for business, can well discharge ; and 
that, at the port of New York at least, those duties would justly 
bear division, were it not that, from their nature and chai'acter, 
they cannot be divided. The same must be nearly the trutli at 
Boston, and cannot vary very materially from it at Charleston 
and St. Louis. The Secretary of the Treasury supposes that the 
receipts and disbursements of the money ordinarily collected and 
disbursed at each of these points will occupy the full time of one 
competent business man ; and will any one suppose that duties so 
onerous and so responsible can be added to those at present to 
be performed by the collectors of the customs? Will any on(i 
desire that such duties and responsibilities should be confided to 
a mere clerk in the office of the collector? He thought not. 
Then the provision, or some one of a similar character, was 



640 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



/ 



indispensable, and its rejection would endanger the safety of the 
public money, embarrass the operations of the treasury, and put 
in jeopardy, if not defeat, the successful action of the whole 
system. 

"The sixth section of the bill was, in substance, the first sec- 
tion of the bill reported by the committee at the extra session; 
the only alterations being those required to make it conform to 
the provisions which were before it, and which he had already 
noticed. It declared what officei's of the government should be 
depositaries, embracing, in addition to those named in the former 
sections, collectors of the customs, receivers of public money at 
the land offices, postmasters, and some other classes, and assigned 
generally the duties to be performed by them in this capacity. 

" He would now pass to section ten, which required but a 
single remark. It conferred a general power upon the Secretary 
of the Treasury to transfer the money in the hands of any depo- 
sitary to the custody and keeping of any other depositar}^, as 
occasion might require. Tliis provision was necessary, as well 
to give the department control over its own affairs, as to enable 
it to consult the safety of the public money and the calls of the 
public service. If money accumulate, at any given point, to an 
amount which, from the smallness of the officer's bond, or from 
any other cause, the Secretary shall have reason to fear is or may 
be unsafe, he should be authorized to transfer it, or any portion 
of it, to a place of safety. If money accumulate at points where 
it is not wanted for disbursement, he should have the same 
authority to transfer it to a point where it is so wanted. If a 
depositary be located at a place remote from any bank and any 
office of safe-keeping, similar authority will be required to trans- 
fer his collections for deposit. These, and many other occasions, 
will arise for the exercise of this power to make transfers. 

"The twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth sections contained 
provisions to authorize special deposits of public money, for safe- 
keeping, at all places where there was no office for the safe-keep- 
ing belonging to the government. The only parts of the sections 
which it would be material for him to notice were those which 
defined the character of the deposits. They are made strictly 
special, and a broad discretion is given to the Secretary of the 



Life and Tuies of ^Silas Wright. 641 

Treasury as to the measures he will adopt to secure to them that 
character. In case he shall think it wise to do so, lie is author- 
ized to provide iron safes to be placed in the vaults of the banks, 
for the exclusive keeping of the public money, and so constructed 
that they may be under the joint control of the bank and the 
depositing officer, so that neither can gain access to the money 
Avithout the consent and aid of the other. A further condition 
is, that nothing but gold and silver, and paper issued upon the 
authority of the United States, and made by law receivable in 
payment of the public dues, shall be offered for deposit by the 
depositaries, or received on deposit by the banks. It is further 
provided that all deposits shall be carried upon the books of the 
bank to the credit of the officer making the deposit, and not to 
the credit of the Treasurer of the United States; that neither the 
Treasurer nor the Secretary of the Treasury shall draw upon the 
bank for disbursements or transfers, and that the money depo- 
sited shall not be withdrawn from the bank, by the officer to 
whose credit it stands, without an order from the Secretary of 
the Treasury for the payment. A commission upon the money 
deposited is proposed to be allowed to the banks for their trouble 
and risk, but as the committee had no information as to the rate 
of commission which it would be safe for Congress to fix as a 
maximum, and not incur the danger of so limiting this compen- 
sation as to induce the banks to refuse the deposits altogether, 
they have reported the bill in blank in this respect. 

" These provisions, it would be seen, were very close; and it had 
been suggested, as well by some of the friends as by the oppo- 
nents of the bill, that they were so close as to render it possible, 
if not probable, that the banking institutions would reject them 
on that account, upon the ground that they carried upon their 
face a distrust of the solvency and responsibility of the institu- 
tions, or of the integrity of their officers and managers, or both. 
He would detain the Senate a few moments to examine these 
objections; and, first, if he understood the matter and the law 
of the case, the idea of distrust as to the solvency and responsi- 
bility of the banks arising from these provisions seemed to him 
to be a forced and unnatural inference. If such an idea could 
grow out of any part of them, it must be that part giving to the 
41 



642 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Secretary of the Treasury a discretion to furnish safes for the 
exchisive keeping of the public money, to be under the joint con- 
trol of the bank and an officer of the government. This would, 
constitute the deposit entirely special; and, as he understood the 
law, the bank would not be responsible for such a deposit beyond 
the obligation of ordinary care and vigilance in its safe-keeping. 
In the incidents of property, responsibility and risk there was 
scarcely a resemblance between a deposit of this character and a 
general, open deposit. In the latter the property is changed the 
moment the deposit is made. The money becomes the absolute 
property of the bank as much as its own capital, and the govern- 
ment receives its credit or promise to pay in its certificate of 
deposit, in exchange foi- the money. No matter, then, how the 
money be lost, if it be lost, the indebtedness of the institution 
upon its certificate is not changed thereby, nor can it be dis- 
charged by any act of the debtor other than payment. In such 
deposits, therefore, the solvency and responsibility of the bank 
become the first subjects of inquiry and examination for the 
depositor. Not so in cases of special deposit. There the pro- 
perty is not changed; the specific thing deposited remains the 
property of the depositor. If it be money, it would be a viola- 
tion of the law and rules of the deposit for the bank to exchange 
it, for any pui'pose, for the same amount of money of an exactly 
similar character. It is the identity of the article and the pro- 
perty in it which give it the character of a special deposit; and 
if that article be converted by the bank, although instantly 
replaced by an exactly similar article in every respect, the iden- 
tity and property are both gone, and the option of the depositor 
alone must determine whether his indemnity shall be the respon- 
sibility of the institution or the article tendered in exchange. 
Hence the difi^erent liabilities of the bank in the two cases. In 
the first it purchases the money w^th its credit, and thus con- 
tracts a debt which it is unconditionally liable to pay; in the 
second it derives no property from tlie deposit, and is a simple 
bailee, with or without compensation as its contract of deposit 
shall determine; but, in either case, only liable in case of want 
of ordinary care and vigilance in the safe-keeping of the thing 
intrusted to its keeping. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 643 

" In tlie provisions for the special deposits provided for, there- 
fore, the government only proposes to hire the security of the 
vaults and safes of the banks for the keeping of its money, and 
the ordinary care and vigilance of its officers in guarding it 
while there. Beyond these, it has nothing to do with the capi- 
tal, solvency or responsibility of the institutions. How, then, 
can it be supposed that the provisions are intended to carry dis- 
trust upon their face against the solvency and resi^onsibility of 
the banks? If the vaults be safe, and the integrity of the offi- 
cers — their vigilance and care — tried and known, an insolvent 
bank is as safe a place for a special deposit as a solvent one; a 
bank unable to pay its debts as a bank abundant in its means 
beyond its liabilities. Either can keep as safely and faithfully 
the property of another placed in its vaults, while the creditors 
of neither can avail themselves of a special deposit, whatever it 
may be, without the assent and aid of the officers of the institu- 
tion. How unnecessarj^, therefore, to declare distrust upon the 
face of a law, when almost all interest in the just grounds for 
that feeling is put at rest by the nature and character of the 
deposit to be made. And how unnatural to infer such distrust 
from language which does not necessarily convey it, when the 
character of the contract proposed to be made does not require 
the inference. 

" It was further alleged that the provisions conveyed imputa- 
tion against the integiity of the officers and managers of the 
banks, and that, therefore, they would not contract with the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury for the deposits proposed. Was this a 
fair construction of the provisions of the bill? Was it an 
improper or ungenerous disti-ust of the integrity of those who had 
the management of these institutions, and the care and custody of 
the property placed in their charge, to set guards over their con- 
duct ? What did the bill propose in reference to the officers who 
were to be intrusted with the safe-keeping of the public money ? 
They were required, not only to give bonds for the faithful per- 
formance of their trust, but a breach of that trust, in the use of 
the money for investments, loans, or in any other manner what- 
soever, was declared a crime which should subject the perpetrator 
to indictment and infamous punishment; to protracted personal 



644 Life and Times of Silas Wuight. 

imprisonment, and to a fine equal to the money embezzled, and, 
consequently, to perpetual disgrace and infamy. Was this a 
suggestion, upon the face of these provisions, of distrust of the 
honesty and integrity of these officers ? Was every honest and 
honorable citizen of the country bound to reject these offices, 
when tendered to them, because the law under which they must 
act, in providing penalties for their misconduct or guards against 
it, conveyed to the public a distrust of their integrity ? Had 
any statesman ever supposed that, in naming penalties and pun- 
ishments in a law for violations of official duty or official trust, 
he was drawing out imputations against the integrity and trust- 
worthiness of the officers who were to hold places under it ? He 
could not so suppose. He could not subscribe to this doctrine ; 
and he would ask if incorporations, incorporeal existences, were 
to be treated more delicately, in our legislation, than that class 
of citizens who would be selected by the President and approved 
by the Senate for high and responsible public trusts? All must 
answer no ; and, so answering, all must concede that there was no 
foundation for this objection to the provisions. Incorporations 
could not be subjected to indictment and punishment, as there 
was no real person upon whom the punishment could be inflicted. 
This check could not be imposed upon their oiRcers and agents, 
because it would be impossible to determine who was guilty in 
form only and who in fact, when every act must be that of an 
agent who may have no discretion. If, then, physical restraints 
are interposed as to these institutions, to accomplish the ends 
which are reached by penal enactments in the case of natural 
persons, is the offense to delicacy of feeling, the affront to honor 
or integrity, greater in the former case than in the latter ? He 
could not see that it was, and he must think that both of these 
objections displayed a degree of overwrought sensibility toward 
the banking institutions of the country which their sagacious 
managers would see should not govern their conduct. 

"There was a single other view of this subject which he must 
present, and he would pass on to other provisions of the bill. It 
was the intention of the committee who drew and reported the 
bill to make these deposits strictly special, to prevent the banks 
from any use of the money deposited; and he believed the pro- 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 645 

visions to which he had referred, if failhfullj- executed, would 
accomplish tliat intention. If the hanks sliould receive the 
money, under this understanding, and with an intention on their 
part to carry it out in good faith, what would be their true 
interest in this matter ? Would it not be to have their power to 
use the money placed beyond question; to liave phj'sical disa- 
bilities interposed between them and that portion of the i)ublic 
treasure committed to their charge ? Observation and experi- 
ence must, already, have taught them that the distrustful eye of 
public opinion follows the public treasure, and, unless the most 
efficient guards are jorovided by the government, and assented to 
by the banks, will not the most injurious suspicions of a breach 
of their trust be likely to rest upon them? Ought they not, for 
their own indemnity, to desire that the use of these moneys should 
be placed beyond their power? And will they not have some 
just reason to apprehend that objections on their part may give 
rise to suspicions as to their disposition faithfully to execute the 
trust in conformity with its intentions ? 

"The fifteenth and sixteenth sections provided checks upon 
the various depositaries constituted by the bill. The first author- 
ized the Secretary of the Treasury to appoint special agents, 
whenever he may find it necessary, to inspect the books, accounts, 
money on hand, and other business of any depositary. The 
principal object of this section, as he understood that object, 
was to enable the Secretary, whenever the returns of the officer, 
information communicated by third persons, or any other infor- 
mation, should authorize a suspicion that all was not right with 
any one of the officers intrusted with the safe-keeping of public 
money, to appoint some competent citizen, as a special agent, to 
present himself, unexpectedly, with authority to examine the 
official transactions of the officer; to detect and correct error, if 
error should be found to exist; to expose fraud and bring the 
officer to punishment, in case dishonesty should be detected, and 
to justify innocence, if suspected without foundation. It was 
true the section made these examinations compulsory, at long 
intervals of one year, in cases where the amounts collected usually 
exceeded a just proportion to the amount secured by the bond 
of the officer; but this part of the section he considered of much 



646 Life and Ti3ies of Silas Wright. 

less importance than that he had before noticed. He considered 
its principal utility to consist in the authority to appoint an agent 
unknown to the officer, and who might come upon him in an 
unprepared state. If the agent were to be one permanently 
appointed and publicly known, one whom the officer might watch 
and guard himself against, he should consider it not worth retain- 
ing. He was aware that, in its present shape, it was objection- 
able to some of the friends of the bill; and, with this exposition, 
he submitted its adoption or rejection to the sense of the Senate. 
It was an exact transcript of a section contained in the bill which 
passed the body at the extra session, and as it was inserted upon 
the suggestion of the head of the Treasury department, he pre- 
sumed the suggestion had proceeded from a similar provision 
contained in the laws which regulate the Post-office department, 
and which had been of great use in detecting frauds connected 
with the extended operations of that department ; but should it 
l)e thought that such a provision would not be beneficial, as con- 
nected with this bill, he should not consider its removal as mate- 
rially marring the system intended to be constituted. 

" The sixteenth section made it the duty of the surveyors of 
the customs, naval officers, registers of the land offices, directors 
of the mints, and some other officers, at the expiration of each 
quarter, to examine into and report to the Secretary of the Trea- 
sury the state of the accounts and money on hand of the dejjosi- 
taries in their districts, or immediate connection. These were 
checks obtained through the instrumentality of existing officers, 
were wholly without expense to the public, would evidently be 
of material service as guards upon the depositaries, and as con- 
tributing to a uniformity and system in the keeping of the 
accounts of those officers, and, he presumed, would meet with 
no objection from any quarter. 

" He would pass now to the twentieth section, which required 
every officer charged with the keeping of public money to keep 
an accurate account of the kinds of money received and paid out; 
the ol)ject of which was to prevent these officers, without detec- 
tion, from receiving and paying out to the public creditors a 
depreciated currency, and also from making exchanges of the 
currency received in a manner which should be injurious to the 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. G47 

public interests, or to the rights of those who might receive piiy- 
ments from the officer of demands against the government. The 
same section also declares tliat any use of the money in his hands 
by any depositary, by way of investment in any kind of property 
or merchandise, or of loan, with or without interest, or in any 
way whatsoever, shall be a high misdemeanor, for which the 
officer convicted thereof shall be imprisoned for a term of not 
less than two nor more than five years, and shall pay a fine equal 
to the amount of the money so used. He believed this was a 
new feature in the legislation of Congress. He had not found 
any case where a law imposed criminal punishment for the mis- 
use or misapplication of money by a public officei- ; but still he 
believed the provision sound in principle, and that it would prove 
salutary in practice. He had examined very superficially the 
legislation of other countries upon this point, and he found that 
many of the nations of Europe, from which we had copied most 
of our public laws, made this act a felony, with much more severe 
punishment than is here proposed. He had heard no objection 
against this feature of the bill from any quarter of the House, 
and he hoped there would, be none. 

"The twenty-first section might not be considered by some as 
peculiarly appropriate to this bill ; but he trusted to be able to 
satisfy the Senate that it connected itself with its provisions in a 
very important manner, and ought to form a part of it. The 
section made it the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, when 
there should be an amount upon deposit to the credit of the 
Treasurer beyond the sum of four millions of dollars, to invest 
such surplus in stocks of the United States, or of some one of the 
States, bearing an interest, and transferable at the pleasure of 
the holder, by delivery or assignment ; but it prohibited the 
Secretary from becoming a subscriber to or purchaser of any new 
stocks about to be issued by any State, and thus prevented him 
from holding out any inducement to any State to issue stocks 
with a view to these investments. It also directed him, when- 
ever the money in the treasury, or standing to the credit of the 
Treasurer with the several depositaries, should be less than four 
millions, to sell so much of the stocks, in which any surplus 
should have been invested, as would keep the money in the trea- 



648 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

sury at that amount, or as his information might satisfy him the 
wants of the treasury would require. 

" Provisions of the character contained in this section were not 
new to the Senate. They had been, upon a former occasion, 
introduced there by himself, as a means of disposing, in the most 
safe and profitable manner to the treasury, and in the way he 
thought would prove most convenient to the business interests of 
the community, of a large surplus of public money on deposit in 
the banks. A different disposition of that subject seemed prefer- 
able to the Senate, and the provisions for investment did not 
meet with favor. He entertained a strong hope that their natu- 
ral connection with this bill, and with the salutary workings of 
the system for the management of the public finances provided 
for by it, would give to it a different reception at the present 
time. 

" It was found that the wide-spread operations of the treasury 
required about four millions of dollars constantly on hand, 
including the amounts in transitu, and the million, or therabouts, 
constantly employed at the mints; but that accumulations beyond 
that sum were, at all ordinary periods, accumulations to be kept, 
not acted upon, for the time being. To avoid, then, the risks of 
keeping, which formed a material objection with those who 
opposed the bill, and to avoid accumulations of money to be 
locked up from use, which formed another and much more 
weighty objection against the system in the arguments of those 
who had hitherto opposed it, these provisions were made a part 
of the bill itself, and he must suppose that these considerations 
would, at this time, and in this connection, render them accept- 
able to many, who, upon their introduction on the former occasion 
alluded to, could not yield them support. He must confidently 
believe that, to those whose minds had been influenced by the 
objections he had repeated, they would constitute a positive 
merit, as a part of a bill otherwise, in their estimation, defective. 

"There was another aspect in which he wished to present these 
provisions. The constant experience of the Treasury depart- 
ment, since the final extinguishment of the national debt, had 
shown the necessity of some elastic provision in our legislation 
upon the subject of the public revenue and expenditures, which 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 649 

would accommodate itself to the varied conditions of the treasury, 
or, rather, Avhich would enable the head of the Treasury depart- 
ment so to manage the national finances as that the treasury 
may l)e at all times prepared to meet the calls upon it, and that 
an amount of money should at no time be hoarded therein, to 
the injury of the business of the country or its citizens. During 
the existence of the public debt, the provisions of law, and 
apju'opriations of money connected with it, furnished this regu- 
lator for the state of the treasury. The applications of money 
upon the debt were at all times governed by the surplus of reve- 
nue over the expenditures, while all the unexpended balances of 
appropriations, after a limited period, passed to the Sinking Fund, 
and were absorbed in the debt. A troublesome surplus of reve- 
nue, therefore, could never exist, while that application remained 
open. On the other hand, as the appropriations for the year 
were carefully provided for before any application upon the debt, 
it Avas scarcely possible that any contingency, not foreseen during 
the regular annual session of Congress, could occur to disenable 
the treasury to meet the demands upon it, arising under the cur- 
rent appropriation bills. The amount of revenue intended for 
application upon the debt would always be sufficient to meet any 
disappointment in the accruing receipts into the treasury. The 
time, however, had now past. The debt was paid ; and, from 
the necessity of the case, and the state of the legislation of Con- 
gress, experiments had been made to measure the actual appro- 
priations by the estimated revenue, and to make them come out 
even. For the first few years of this trial, from a state of cir- 
cumstances not at the time sufficiently considered, but now clearly 
and properly estimated, the revenue got largely the better of the 
approi)riations. This gave rise to the bill directing a deposit of 
the surplus with the States; and again the actual appropriations 
and the estimated revenues were attempted to be equally measured. 
A revulsion in the trade, and business, and banking of the coun- 
try came ; the anticipated revenue was cut short, and that por- 
tion of it which rested ujjon credits could not be realized. 
Indeed, the very money on deposit in the banks, to the credit of 
the Treasurer, could not be commanded, and, comparatively, the 
whole anticipated means of the treasury were either not realized, 



650 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

or placed beyond its control. Still the appropriations were in 
force, the expenditures were going on under them, and could not 
be arrested, and a special convocation of Congress became neces- 
sary, to preserve the faith of the government, and enable the 
jDublic treasury to meet the just demands upon it. What followed 
was fresh in the recollection of the Senate and the country; and 
he would not consume the time by a repetition of the measures 
of relief to the country and the treasury adopted at that session. 

" He had mentioned these facts to show the necessity of some 
provision to guard against these disappointments in the accruing 
revenue, as well as to prevent the evil of a hoarding of money, 
when the revenue should overreach the appropriations. In either 
sense, he considered the provisions of the section of the first 
importance, and he entreated Senators not to suffer past recollec- 
tions to prejudice their minds, but to examine these facts ; to 
permit our late experience to have its due weight; to reflect how 
frequently similar disappointments, as to the revenue, might be 
experienced — how often surplus amounts of revenue might alarm 
the public mind, as to the safety of the public treasure; and then 
to decide upon the adoption or rejection of the section. 

" The only remaining section which he would notice, as con- 
nected with the first great object of the bill, was the twenty- 
seventh. This section authorizes the Treasurer of the United 
States to receive, at the treasury, and at such other places as he 
shall designate, payments of money in advance for the purchase 
of public lands, and to give a receipt for each payment, which 
shall be current at any of the land offices at any public or pri- 
vate sale of lands. Since the bill had been reported, he had 
become convinced that the section was too loosely drawn and 
required to be amended. These receipts might be taken and 
treated as negotiable paper, and might, as the section now stood, 
be given in a form which would make them so upon their face. 
This would subject the bill to the imputation of authorizing the 
emission of a paper currency based upon the public lands, a thing 
by no means intended by himself, and he was sure not by any 
member of the committee who assented to the report of the bill. 
He had therefore prepared an amendment, declaring that the 
receipts to be given by the Treasurer, pursuant to the provisions 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 651 

of the section, should not be negotiable or transferable by assign- 
ment or delivery, or in any other manner whatsoever; but that 
every such receipt should be presented at the land office by or 
for the person to whom it was given, as shown upon its face. In 
this shape he hoped the section would not be objectionable upon 
the ground above stated, while he thought it would be apparent 
that its general provision would be of great convenience to those 
purchasers of the public lands wlio were to emigrate from the old 
States and to carry with them the means to make their purchases. 
It would save them from the trouble and risk of transporting 
money of any descrijjtion, and also from the danger of taking to 
so distant a portion of the country a currency which would not 
answer their purpose when there. It was not apprehended that 
the Treasurer would be called upon to select many points as 
places where these payments might be made. Perhaps the 
points at which it was proposed to keep offices for the deposit of 
the public money would be sufficient, and perhaps a few other 
principal places might be selected with increased convenience to 
the public. A certificate of the deposit of the money at any 
designated point, transmitted to the Treasurer, would command 
the required receipt from him as well as the actual payment of 
the money at the treasury itself; and as this could be done 
through the mail, the party making the payment would be saved 
the expense of a journey to the Treasurer's office in this city. 

" A further and material advantage to the banking institutions, 
he was assured, would be derived from the adoption of this sec- 
tion. The notes of specie-paying banks are now authorized to be 
received for all payments except for lands, and if this bill passed 
would be receivable as well for lands as other public dues, to a 
greater or less extent, for six or seven years yet to come. Still, 
a citizen of the old States about to emigrate to the new, and hav- 
ing the money for the purchase of his lands in the notes of specie- 
paying banks of the old States, would not venture to take those 
notes as the means of payment, because there would be a danger 
that the land officer to whom he might wish to inake payment 
would not receive the notes of even specie-paying banks, so 
remote from the place where alone they could be converted into 
specie. The emigrant would be compelled, therefore, to present 



652 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

the notes, convert them himself, and take the specie as his means 
of payment, unless the provision now proposed or some one of a 
similar character should enable him to make the payment before 
his journey is commenced. The experience of the past had 
proved that this was the course pursued by the emigrants 
toward the banks in the vicinity of their former i-esidences, and 
pursued from compulsion; but he had been informed that dur- 
ing the short period, in the summer of 1836, when payments for 
lands were actually received at the office of the Treasurer in this 
city, large amounts were paid and received ; and that the banks 
here, and in the adjoining States of Virginia and Maryland, expe- 
rienced sensible and material relief from the practice. 

"He would here close his examination of the first class of the 
provisions of the bill, and give a very brief attention to the sec- 
ond: those relating to the proposed change in the currency to be 
received in payment of the public dues. 

" The principal and controlling provision upon this subject was 
to be found in the twenty-third section of the bill. The section 
was long, and contained much detail, but the principle adopted 
by it was simple and intelligible; it was merely a gradual change 
from the currency of specie-paying bank-notes to the legal cur- 
rency of the country. The change was to commence after the 
close of the present year, and was to cover the full period of six 
years, making the change applicable to one-sixth part of the 
accruing revenue of each, beyond that of the next preceding 
year. He could most easily make the Senate acquainted with 
this section, by saying that it was, in substance and principle, the 
provision offered by the honorable Senator from South Carolina 
[Mr. Calhoun], by way of amendment to the bill reported by the 
committee to the Senate, at the extra session, in September last. 
The only material change made by the committee had been to 
extend the gradation of the change in the currency from fourths 
to sixths, so as to require six instead of four years to make the 
change entire. The section might not be drawn in the same 
words used by that Senator in his amendment, but, with the 
exception just named, the substance was identical. 

"This was a feature of the bill which former experien.ee assured 
liim wuuld be'-more strongly contested, perhaps, than any other 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 653 

of its provisions. It would be recollected by the Senate that, at 
the extra session, the committee had incorporated into tlieir bill 
no provision in reference to the currency in which the public dues 
should be received, and that their opinion had been then expressed 
to the body, that it would be most expedient to legislate upon 
each of these great points separately, and by separate bills. A 
different opinion was stongly expressed at the time by several 
Senators, and different amendments touching this subject of the 
currency were early offered to the bill which the committee did 
report. After full debate, and by deliberate votes, the amend- 
ment proposed by the Senator from South Carolina was adopted 
and made a part of the bill. Under these circumstances, the 
committee had felt constrained, in making their report at this 
session, to include this provision in that report, and to make it a 
part of the same measure which should separate the finances of 
the country from the banking interests of the country. Hence 
is the section now found in the bill presented by the committee, 
although it was not a part of their former report. Still, it pre- 
sents a question of deep interest, of great magnitude, and upon 
which there is great diversity of opinion and great delicacy of 
feeling, as well throughout the country as in this and the other 
House of Congress. 

" It was not his purpose, at this time, to discuss the section except 
in one aspect, but in that one he must make some suggestions. 
The alarm taken at the provision had relation principally to tlie 
State banks, and it av^s in reference to the interests of those insti- 
tutions that he proposed the suggestions he was about to make. 
The proposition is, gradually, and after the term of some six 
or seven years, to discontinue the receipt of their notes in pay- 
ment of the public dues, although they may be, at the time, 
specie-paying banks, and their notes may he convertible into 
specie, at the will of the holder, at their banking-house, wherever 
that may be located. The objection is, that this rejection of the 
paper of these banks, on the part of the national government, 
will so far discredit their circulation generally as to cripple their 
operations, destroy their powers of usefulness in the local sphere 
of their legitimate operations, and finally annihilate them. Is 
there ground for this apprehension ? How are the charters of 



654 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

the State banks obtained, and for what purposes ? Is it that the 
circulation of their notes shall extend over the whole Union ? Is 
it that those notes shall take with them, wherever they may go, 
the faith and credit of the United States, and be the lesal cur- 
rency of the federal government at every point and place in 
these twenty-six States ? No ; no such idea ever entered into the 
mind of any man, Avho, as a member of the Legislature of his 
State, has voted for a local bank charter. The only ground upon 
w^hich those applications are pressed upon the State Legislature is, 
the accommodation of the commerce and business in the imme- 
diate vicinity of the proposed location of the bank. Look at the 
statistics which are always made a part of the argument in favor 
of a particular State charter. Are they the statistics of the 
Union? No; they are the statistic? of the village, or town, or 
county embracing the location of the proposed bank, and they 
are intended to prove the necessity of the banking facilities pro- 
posed to be furnished by the charter at that point. Did any 
man ever suppose, then, that the State Legislatures, to which 
these applications are so constantly and perseveringly addressed, 
considered themselves, in their very liberal grants in this way, 
to be authorizing a currency for the whole people of the United 
States, and especially a standard of currency for the treasury of 
the United States ? No. Such a position would not be assumed 
by any man here, nor would it by any man in the country. 
Where, then, arose the obligation of this government to receive 
the notes of these institutions, thus chartered, and for such pur- 
poses, in payment of the public dues ? He could not see either 
the obligation or the duty; and certainly no one would contend, 
in case the notes were to be received, that they should be kept 
on hand as the money treasure of the Avhole people. 

"How, then, were they to be disposed of in a manner to con- 
sult the safety of the public funds, in case they were to be per- 
petually received ? This question admitted of but one answer. 
They must be presented, at short intervals, to the banks which 
issued them, and converted into money, into the legal currency 
of the country. In conformity with this manifest principle, the 
bill provided that these notes should not be made matters of 
deposit, under the regulations it contains for special deposits in 



Life and Times of Silas Wrigbt. 655 

banks. It Avould be folly to deposit, merely for safety, the 
representative of value, in the place of the value itself, where the 
open option existed to constitute the deposit of the one or the 
other. Which would, then, be most useful to the State banks : 
to receive their notes as cash at the treasury, and constantly 
convert them into specie, or gradually to discontinue that receipt 
altogether, and collect the revenue in the legal currency only V 
To allow them from six to seven years to conform themselves, 
their business and their conditions to the changed state of 
things ; or to. commence immediately to receive tlieir notes for 
the public dues, so far as those notes are redeemable in specie 
upon demand at their banking-houses, and to present them for 
payment at short intervals and in large masses ? For himself, 
he must sa)^ he thought the provisions of the section in question 
were more mild and more favorable to the State banks tlian the 
alternative he had contemplated. The subject, however, was 
before the Senate. It would be discussed l)y others, wlio had 
bestowed more thought and more research upon this particular 
point than he had ; the merits of the question, in every aspect, 
would be fairly and fully presented, and he would content him- 
self with whatever decision should be made. Should this propo- 
sition not meet with favor, he should ask the sense of the Senate 
upon the alternative, and he would not permit himself to doubt 
that the one or the other would be adopted. 

" The twenty-fourth section was merely calculated to carry out 
the one which preceded it, by making it imperative upon all dis- 
bursing officers, after the time when the whole revenue should be 
collectable in the legal currency of the United States, to make 
all their disbursements in the same currency, upon penalty of 
dismissal from office, and a forfeiture of any compensation which 
might be due to them at the time of their violation of the law. 

"• The twenty-fifth section might, perhaps, be considered as 
somewhat connected with those which have gone before it, as it 
requires the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe the times 
within which the drafts of the Treasurer, drawn upon the various 
depositaries, according to their respective distances from the seat 
of government, shall be presented for payment, and after which 
time they shall not be accepted and paid by the depositary, 



656 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

without new directions from the Secretary. The object of this 
section, it will be seen, was to prevent these drafts from being 
made a currency for circulation, based upon the credit of the 
government. Since the suspension of the banks, in May last, 
this use has been made of these drafts, to some extent, and it 
was thought desirable to check the practice in its inception. 
The section was copied from a provision of the bill which passed 
the Senate at the extra session, and which was inserted in that 
.bill, as an amendment, by the Senate itself. 

" He would relieve the Senate and himself from any further 
observations as to the details of the bill. He had omitted seve- 
ral of great importance, and among them he would mention those 
which made provision for the official bonds of the several deposi- 
taries. He believed those provisions broad and ample, and such 
as were best calculated to secure the public treasure, and he 
thought every Senator, upon examination, would agree with him 
in this opinion. He would not attempt to particularize the other 
sections which had not been noticed, but would merely remark 
that none of them introduced any new principle into the bill, and 
that he thought all would be found to reach the object intended 
by them. 

"Such, Mr. President, said Mr. W., is the system which the 
majority of the Committee on Finance have considered it to be 
their duty to present to the Senate, for the safe-keeping, transfer 
and disbursement of the public money of the United States. 
This system is strenuously opposed, not by the political partj' 
uniformly opposed to the present administi'ation only, but by 
some of the respected and influential individuals among those 
who have hitherto been its friends and supporters. What, then, 
is proposed by those wdio cannot give their support to the bill 
before you? The system of State bank deposits seems to be 
more especially urged as the antagonist proposition, and, under 
the impression that there was to rest the present controversy, so 
far as distinct propositions of any character would be submitted 
to the Senate, he proposed to institute a comparison between the 
advantages and disadvantages of each system, as connected with 
the prominent objections which had been heretofore urged against 
the provisions of the bill. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. (j57 

"First, then, as to the safety of the public money under the 
system proposed by the bill, and under the State bank deposit 
system. 

" The bill proposes to require ample and sufficient bonds and 
sureties from all the depositaries constituted by it, as one step 
toward the safety of the money intrusted to the keeping of those 
agents. 

" It also proposes to provide vaults and safes at the most 
important points of collection and disbursement, in this respect 
placing itself upon a par with banks, so far as physical securities 
are concerned. 

" It further proposes to adopt the use of the vaults and safes 
of the banks, at all places where those securities are not provided 
by the government, using the banks for safety simply, by the 
system of special deposits, and not in any sense as fiscal agents 
of the treasury. 

" These are the guards which the system constituted by the 
bill holds out to the people against the loss of their treasure. 

" The State bank deposit system presents the capitals of the 
institutions as security for deposits, in the same manner as for 
all other liabilities of the incorporation. 

" It also presents its vaults and safes, constructed for its own 
security, and, it is fair to presume, as securely constructed as 
those proposed for the government. 

" It next presents, as we have heretofore practiced under it, 
collateral bonds, with sureties, for the due and faithful fulfillment 
of its engagements on the part of the bank. 

" These are the protections to the public treasure offered by 
the State bank deposit system, supposing, as he did, that the 
system, if continued, was to remain upon the plan of open or 
general deposits, as adopted in the deposit bill of 1836. Other- 
wise, as he had shown in a former part of his remarks, the capi- 
tal of the bank would not be liable, except for gross negligence 
in the keeping of the money placed in its vaults. 

" What, then, are the risks under each system ? 

" Under that proposed by the bill, the only single risk is that 
of the misconduct and dishonesty of the officers to whom the 
safe-keeping of the money is intrusted, and that conduct, in addi- 
42 



658 Life and Times oi Silas Wright. 

tion to all other legal liabilities, is made a high crime, and punish- 
able with protracted personal imprisonment. The persons to 
whom tliis trust is to be confided are such citizens as the Presi- 
dent, with a full knowledge of the duties, responsibilities and 
temptations, shall select and nominate to the Senate, and as the 
Senate, upon full examination, shall advise and consent that the 
President do appoint and commission to execute the trust. The 
risk is that these persons will be dishonest; that they will become 
insensible to standing and character ; that they will violate tlieir 
faith to their sureties and their country; that they will embezzle 
the public money in their hands, and thus subject themselves to 
infamous punishment — to imprisonment with rogues and felons 
for a term of not less than two years. 

" One of the risks under the State bank deposit system is the 
same misconduct and dishonesty of the officers, agents and mana- 
gers of the banks, and they are numerous, and many of them 
selected to perform subordinate duties. Without any imputation 
upon the institutions, therefore, or their principal officers, it can- 
not be unfair to assume that many of the persons who must have 
access to their books, accounts and money will not be persons of 
that standing and character which would be required, by all con- 
cerned, in the selection and appointment of responsible public 
officers. In the case of the bank, too, the persons who must 
have access to the money in its charge are numerous, while under 
the other system the single depositary alone has such access. 
Again, the misconduct and dishonesty of the officers and agents 
of the bank are not made criminal and punished as crimes. If 
committed, so far as the government is concerned, they are mere 
breaches of trust, and incur a debt ; they lay the foundation for 
a suit at law to recover the money embezzled. Can it, by possi- 
bility, be supposed that these risks are equally balanced ? He 
knew that, upon a former occasion, when this same subject Avas 
under discussion, we had had paraded' before us a long and most 
unpleasant list of defaulting public officers ; but it had not been 
stated at what periods those defaults had occurred, or what was 
their aggregate amount. He had never, upon any occasion, 
examined tlie list with much care, as it was not a matter of enter- 
tainment to him to see these evidences of unworthiness in those 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 659 

who had sought and obtained public patronage and public trust. 
He had, however, referred to the list sufficiently to learn that 
nine-tenths of the defaults recorded upon it had happened during 
the prevalence of a system of bank deposits of some sort; and he 
thought it would be found, upon careful comparison, that a large 
majority of them had taken place when a national bank, that 
great security, in the minds of many, against all pecuniary evils, 
was the sole depository of the national treasure. The defaulters 
were mostly disbursing officers proper, such as paymasters of the 
army, pursers in the navy, and the like, or postmasters, who had 
never, until very recently, been legally connected, in any way, 
with the treasury, or contractors upon the public works. All these 
classes of persons, except postmasters, must always, and under 
any system, have the same opportunity to misapply public money; 
and their defaults, therefore, were no more an argument against 
the system proposed by the bill, for the safe-keeping of the pub- 
lic money, than against any other system which could be devised 
or named. He had already said the amount of these defaults 
had not been stated. He did not know the amount; but this he 
would venture to affirm, without the fear of contradiction, that 
the whole amount of losses to the government, from the defaults 
of public officers, since its organization under the Constitution, 
would be but a fraction of the losses which it had sustained from 
its connection with the State banks alone, setting aside the forty 
years of the period when a national bank was the sole fiscal agent 
of the treasury. Here, therefore, the State bank system gained 
no advantage in the argument. He was most happy to be able 
to say that, in comparison with the vast amounts which had 
been received and disbursed, the losses under any system hitherto 
adopted had been very small, and it made him proud of his 
country, and of her citizens, to state a fact which had been given 
to him from high authority, since the subject of intrusting 
the money of the people with their own officers had been one of 
discussion before the country. The fact to which he alluded 
was that the whole disbursements of the army, from the year 
1821 to the year 1836, both inclusive, amounting to several mil- 
lions in each year, had been made through the hands of the pub- 
lic officers appointed for that purpose, and that not one dollar of 



660 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

loss had accrued tt) the government from those appropriations 
during the whole of that period. Ought not this fact alone to 
inspire confidence in the trustworthiness of our public servants? 
It seemed to him so; and he must say he could not comprehend 
how it was, after all the experience which our former and recent 
history had afforded, that gentlemen of the most unquestioned 
integrity should feel and manifest so much distrust against the 
public ofiicers of the government — men of elevated standing 
and character, and directly accountable to the people and their 
representatives, as well as to the civil and criminal tribunals of 
the country — and should at the same time, and in reference to 
the same subject, repose such implicit and unmoved confidence 
in the incorj)orated banking institutions of the States, and in 
their officers and managers. Did they believe that the transfer 
of a citizen from private life to a public office necessarily poi- 
soned his integrity, while a similar transfer to a situation in a 
bank rendered him worthy of all trust? No. They could not 
so believe. The fact could not be so. The honest man would be 
honest in either situation. The dishonest man would be honest 
in neither. He knew that public officers sometimes became 
defaulters ; and he must be permitted to ask how frequently the 
public sense was startled by announcements, through the public 
press, of the defaults and embezzlements of the most confiden- 
tial officers of banks? All were frail and erring men; and some, 
alike in both classes, would prove unequal to the resistance which 
the temptations of their situations required ; but he could not see 
that either system derived any advantage over the other from 
this consideration ; while he did believe that the bill under dis- 
cussion proposed guards against this risk which would be found 
more beneficial in practice than any hitherto known to the legis- 
lation of Congress. 

" So far as vaults and safes were concerned, he had already 
admitted that each system possessed equal advantages; and from 
what had been said it would be seen that, to a very great extent, 
these securities, as applied to both systems, were identically the 
same. 

"But there is another and much more important risk con- 
nected with the bank system. It is, that all moneys placed with 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 661 

the banks for safe-keeping, upon open or general deposit, are 
necessarily subjected to all the hazards which attend the busi- 
ness of the banking institutions. We have already seen that the 
money thus deposited becomes at once the property of the bank, 
and that the depositor receives in exchange for his money the 
simple credit of the institution. If, then, its credit be subjected 
to the hazards of the banking business, so must be the money 
placed on general deposit with it. as that money is merely con- 
verted by the depositor into that credit. By adopting this sys- 
tem, therefore, for the safe-keeping of the national treasure, we 
embark the money of the people in the same boat with the capi- 
tal of the bank; we subject it to all the hazards to which that 
capital is subjected, and we substantially agree, so far as our 
reliance is upon the capital of the institution for indemnity, that 
if the adventure be fortunate our money shall be safe, but that 
if it be unfortunate the risk and the loss shall be ours. We are 
not, however, to be placed in the condition of the owners of the 
capital of the bank. We are not to share in the profits of a for- 
tunate hazard. Our only object is safety for our money, and to 
gain that we take our share of the risks, without any interest in 
the contemplated profits from them. Who will contend that 
these risks do not fully balance the safety we derive as the con- 
sideration for incurring them ? The bank system, then, derives 
no advantage in the argument from the security afibrded us by 
its capital, so long as it subjects us to all its risks without any 
share in its gains. 

" Let us now balance the account, as far as we have gone, and 
see which system has the advantage. In the security of vaults 
and safes both are equal. The security afforded by the capitals 
of the banks is counterbalanced by the risks it compels us to 
take, growing out of its banking operations, without any share 
in the profits of those oj^erations, if fortunate. This balances 
this item of the account. In the risk growing out of the miscon- 
duct and dishonesty of ofiicers, managers and agents, the system 
proposed by the bill has a decided advantage in the number of 
persons to be trusted, the standing and character of those Avho 
have access to the money, and the guards against and punish- 
ment of embezzlement. In the bonds and sureties both systems 



662 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

would he, prima facie, e<\Vid\', but we have been recently told, 
by a distinguished Senator [Mr. Webster], that the collateral 
bonds given by the banks are useless paper; that they are always 
signed by officers, directors and stockholders of the bank for 
which they are sureties, by persons whose business and fortunes 
are interwoven with the business and fortunes of the bank, and 
that when it fails the sureties upon our bond must fail with it. 
He hoped this position was not true to its full extent ; but he 
must admit that it was likely to be true in a veiy great degree, 
for who would become security for a bank but the persons inter- 
ested in it ? These institutions, from their nature and character, 
could neither receive nor reciprocate any other friendships than 
those of interest, and, therefore, they could only look to the 
interested to find sureties for their engagements. Not so with 
the public officer. He would have no business relations. His 
official duties would require his whole time and whole mind. 
The discharge of those duties would call for no bank facilities. 
His sureties would be friends, men wholly disconnected from him 
in business, and whose properties and responsibilities could not 
be affected by his pecuniary disasters, any farther than their lia- 
bilities upon his bond should produce that effect. The system 
proposed by the bill, then, derived a material advantage over the 
bank system, in the safety of the collateral bonds, and thus must 
be admitted, in the settlement of the account, to have two advan- 
tages over the antagonist system, and to be the safer of the two. 

*' Second. He would now carry the comparison to the expenses 
of the antagonistic systems. 

"And, first, of the expenses under that proposed by the bill. 
They were the erection of the two offices at Charleston and St. 
Louis. It had been seen, however, that the erection of an office 
at Charleston would be probably avoided; that the government 
now owned a custom-house at that place, and that rooms for an 
office for the receiver-general of public moneys there might be 
procured in that building ; that the necessary vaults would be 
required to be constructed, and the rooms fitted up and prepared 
for this use, which would be the whole expense at that point 
for erections. The estimate of the department, for these pur- 
poses, was $2,000. For the expenses of a site, the erection of 



Ltfe and Times of Stlas Wright. G(>3 

the necessary building, and the construction of vaiills and safes 
within it, at St. Louis, the dc'iiartinont supposed an expense of 
from $4,500 to $5,000 would be incurred. From inquiry made 
of gentlemen intimately and personally acquainted willi llif 
prices of pi'operty and building materials at that [)lare, hv pre- 
sumed the expense might be above the estimate of the de[)art- 
ment. It was said that the cost of a suitable site, at a proper 
location within the business part of the town, would be some 
three or four thousand dollars at the least. In this event, the 
estnnate would be much too low, and it was just to the Secretary 
of the Treasury to say that the estimate of the department was 
accompanied with a declaration that no local information was 
possessed, such as was required to approximate toward perfect 
accuracy. The estimates were from $6,500 to $7,000. He 
would suppose they were too low by $3,000, and that an 
expenditure of $10,000 would be incurred for these erections 
at the two points. He had been more particular and detailed 
upon this item of the proposed expenditures, because he was 
well advised that the most persevering efforts had been made, 
and are constantly making, to represent the intention to be to 
erect palaces and splendid edifices for these humble offices? 
He had no other answer to give to these mistakes than to pre- 
sent the estimates of the proper department of the government — 
of that department which was charged by the bill with the erec- 
tion of the buildings not only, but with the direction of the plans 
upon which they were to be erected — thus showing, as perfectly 
as mere intention can be shown, the views of the government as 
to the scale of extravagance or economy designed by it in this 
particular; and to say that Congress was the only branch of the 
government which could be looked to for the means to make any 
erections whatsoever, and that its appropriations must measure 
the expense and consequently the extravagance or economy of 
the executors of the law. 

"The next and only other item of expense, under the l)ill, 
would be the pay of the officers and clerks employed. The 
number of additional officers whose appointments were provided 
for was four, and he would assume that their combined salaries 
would not be less than eight nor more than twelve thousand dol- 



664 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

lars. They were to be placed in responsible trusts, and ought to 
be citizens of elevated standing and tried moral integrity. He 
could not suppose, therefore, that any one would wish to assign 
them salaries of less than $2,000 each, and he did not think that 
the salary of any one of them should exceed |3,000. For the 
sake of the argument he would call this expense |1 2,000. 

" It might be necessary to employ from six to twelve addi- 
tional clerks under the various provisions of the bill. Their 
combined pay might amount to from six to ten thousand dollars. 
He thought the estimate, both as to the number of clerks and as 
to the amount of compensation, very high. Botli, however, were 
his own, as he had asked no estimate from the department upon 
this point, and he was willing to assume the higliest of his suppo- 
sitions to be the true standard of expense for these two objects. 

" These last are regular annual expenses, and ai-e therefore to 
be considered as the constant charge upon the public treasury 
of the system proposed. The cost of the erections is a single 
expense, which, being once incurred and paid, is done with. 

"What, then, are the expenses of the State bank deposit sys- 
tem? If the deposits are open and general, and the banks have 
the use of the public money as a compensation for their agency, 
the expense is nothing, directly. The use pays for the keeping, 
as it most assuredly should, when the money is not in fact kept 
but used. He should have occasion, however, very soon, to hint 
at the indirect expense to the United States of such a system of 
bank deposits. 

" But suppose a system of special deposits be established, and 
the banks be effectually prohibited from the use, for any pur- 
pose, of the money of the people in their keeping, how then will 
stand the question of expense ? A commission upon the money 
deposited must be paid to the bank for its trouble and risk. He 
was wholly unable to say what that commission ought to be, or 
what Congress woiild be compelled to make it to induce the 
banks to accept the trust. He had found, however, from a com- 
parison of various rates of commission with the ordinary amounts 
of revenue collected under the existing laws, and with the esti- 
mate of the revenue for the current year, that one-eighth of one 
per cent would amount to from twenty-five to twenty-eight thou- 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 665 

sand dollars, as the constant and current expenses of a special 
deposit system. 

" How, then, stands the comparison? It had been seen that 
the annual expenses of the system proposed by the bill would, 
in the payment of officers and clerks, vary from fourteen to 
twenty-two thousand dollars, and that the last would be the 
highest amount to which those expenditures could rise midor 
that system were Congress to adopt it as reported by the 
committee. The expenditures for erections might be added, 
if gentlemen chose, and the average made upon any given 
number of years which, in the judgment of any member of 
the Senate, would afford a fair trial to any financial system 
adapted to the operations of the national treasury, and conform- 
ing as strictly to the great mass of private and corporate interests 
in the country as the constitutional powers of Congress would 
permit that conformation to be made. He could not see, there- 
fore, that any system, formed upon the basis of special deposits 
in banks, could, in point of expense, possess advantages over the 
bill under discussion. He had not forgotten that that bill adopted 
a partial system of special deposits, and that it contemplated a 
payment of a commission to the banks which should keep the 
public money pursuant to its provisions; but he assumed that the 
difference of amount in the above estimate for the respective sys- 
tems was more than sufficient to cover any commissions which a 
fair execution of the provisions of the bill would call out of the 
public treasury to be paid to the banks. The most important 
points in the country, both as to the collection and disbursement 
of the public money, were provided for, independently of the 
provisions for a special deposit. The commissions, therefore, 
could be made applicable to but a mere fraction of the whole 
revenue; and, at any contemplated rate, the whole amount could 
never exceed a few thousand dollars. 

" He had made a reference to the indirect expenses of an open 
and general State bank deposit system, where the services and 
risks of the banks were compensated by the use of the publ'c 
money. Need he, at this time, and in the present condition of 
the State banks and of the public funds, define his meaning in 
that reference ? Why was the special convocation of Congress 



666 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

rendered necessary in Septenibei' last ? Was it not the suspen- 
sion of the banks to pay specie for their paper, and the consequent 
inability of the public treasury to obtain fi-om them, in any 
currency conformable to law, the millions of the public money 
intrusted to their safe-keeping, and required for the current 
expenditures of the government ? No one would deny this posi- 
tion. What the expense to the people of the United States was, 
for that single extra session of Congress, he had not taken the 
trouble to inform himself; but this he would venture to assert 
with perfect confidence, that those expenses more than equaled 
the money required to carry on the system of finance, proposed 
by the bill, for any period of ten years. He would not now bring 
into notice the losses which might yet be sustained before the 
experiment of the late State bank deposit system should be finally 
closed. He did not wish to say anything unfavorable to the 
eventual solvency and safety and security of those institutions. 
He did not wish to bring any distrust upon them; much less 
would he repeat here the daily rumors of that portion of the 
public press which most strenuously opposed this measure, of the 
entire failure of this and that and the other 'pet bank;' of the 
$60,000 here and 140,000 there, and untold thousands somewhere 
else, lost to the people by this experiment-trying administration, 
in consequence of the employment of these State banks as fiscal 
agents of the public treasury. He hoped and believed these 
pictures were overdrawn ; he was content to suppose, for the 
purpose of this argument, that not one dollar was to be thus lost, 
and yet he tn;sted he had shown that the system proposed by 
the bill, for the management of the national finances, was more 
economical and less expensive to the tax-paying public, than 
either a system of general or special State bank deposits. 

" Third. His next point of comparison should be the patron- 
age conferred upon the executive branch of the government by 
the antagonistic systems. 

" It had been already seen that the system proposed by the 
bill required the appointment of four additional officers, with 
salaries of from two to three thousand dollars. This was a 
direct increase of the executive power and patronage; but when 
it should be recollected how many officers, with equal salaries, 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 667 

already existed, and with how much facility officers were added 
to that number, at almost every session of Congress, and in almost 
every one of the executive departments, ho must hope tliat no 
unreasonable alarm Avould be felt in imy quarter of tlie House by 
this very limited addition to the existing nunibcr. [f they were not 
to be constitutionally appointed, or if, being so appointed, duties 
were to be assigned to them not of a character compatil)le with 
our civil and political institutions, then the offices ought not to 
be created or the duties assigned, regardless of all consequences 
which the rejection of the proposition might bring upon the 
country. If, however the appointments are to l)e constitutionally 
made, and the duties of the officers seem to be necessary to the 
public service, he must be permitted to say that he reposed too 
confidently upon the intelligence of the American people to sup- 
pose they would condemn the measure because its details called 
for such an accession of executive strength to carry out their 
wishes. He would not permit himself so far to distrust the con- 
fidence of our citizens in the government of their choice as to 
believe that they would not feel perfectly safe in the decisions of 
Cono-vess as to the offices to be created, and in the President and 
Senate to select the persons to fill those offices. 

" Was it, could it be, true that a greater or safer trust was to 
be placed in local banking incorporations than could be placed 
in the constituted authorities of our government, as organized 
under the Constitution ? Were the tax-paying citizens of our 
Republic afraid to intrust the safe-keeping of the national trea- 
sure to officers of their own choice and responsible to them and 
to the laws of Congress, and anxious to confide it to banks not 
created by national authority, over which no branch of the 
national government had any control, and in the management of 
which neither the people nor their government had any voice ? 
He did not believe this was the state of public opinion. He did 
not believe that distrust toward our national authorities had yet 
gained this extent. He was not ready to admit that banks, such 
as our State banks now are, and with the recent experience of 
the danger of resting the operations of the public treasury upon 
them, were more the favorites of the people of this country than 
their own well-tried and faithful servants. 



668 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

" It was not his wish or design, he would repeat again, to say 
anything unjust or injurious to these institutions. Within their 
proper spheres they were convenient and useful, but recent events 
had perfectly satisfied his mind that they were not the fit keepers 
of the treasure and treasury of a nation; that this important inci- 
dent to national independence ought not to be committed to the 
charge of institutions whose interest leaned so strongly toward 
a hazardous misapplication of such a trust. 

"Was it, could it have been, contemplated by the framers of 
our system of government that they had provided no fit and 
trustworthy depository of the national finances; that banks — 
incorporations, private incorporations, chartered for private uses, 
owned by private individuals, and managed by persons responsi- 
ble only to the stockholders — must be called in to sustain the 
most delicate trust under any government; that the will of 
these institutions must be consulted as to the terms upon which 
they would consent to accept the trust, and that all the authori- 
ties of the country. Congress itself included, must cater with 
them for terms upon which the money of a free people could be 
kept and paid out, and as to the character of the currency which 
either should be permitted to enjoy; had propositions to this 
effect been submitted to the convention which framed the Consti- 
tution, what would have been their fate ? Does any one believe 
they would now have been found in that Constitution which is 
the pride of freemen everywhere? No; such dependence upon 
such aid wduld have found no countenance there. Can it find 
countenance in the Senate now ? 

" Could any one doubt, then, that the people's money should 
be confided to the people's servants, to their oflicers, responsible 
to them and to the laws? and that the appointment of such and 
so many ofticers as should be found necessary to perform this 
trust, in a manner safe and convenient to the treasury and to 
the people themselves, was not only in strict conformity with 
the Constitution and the very nature of our civil institutions, 
but an imperious duty upon every Congress ? He could enter- 
tain no doubts upon either point. 

" There was another direct grant of executive patronage and 
power under the bill — the authority to appoint the necessary 



Life and Times of Silas Weioht. 6G9 

clerks to perform the mechanical duties required, when they 
could not be performed by the officers to whose keepinL? the 
money was to be intrusted — and il had been seen tliat this nii<;hl 
involve the selection and appointment of from six to (wclve 
clerks. He would consume no time in comnicntiiii;- upon this 
grant of power; the mere statement of the fact shouhl suHice. 

"These two were the only direct grants of executive pat mil- 
age which the bill proposed to make ; but it seemed to be sup- 
posed that the power and influence of the executive was to be 
immensely and dangerously increased over all the otlicers charged 
with the keeping of any portion of the public money, and this 
idea formed one of the most weighty objections against tlie sys- 
tem. How, he would ask, is this inference derived ? Not one 
cent of additional compensation is piroposed to be given to any 
one of the existing executive ofiicers, in consequence of the addi- 
tional duties imposed upon them by this bill. They were all 
now subject to removal from office by the President, at his plea- 
sure. Whence, then, was he to derive this increased power over 
tliem? Could he command the money in their hands? No; 
unless he was ready to commit a direct infraction of the Consti- 
tution, and the officer to subject himself to protracted imprison- 
ment and infamous punishment. The bill })rovides that all 
money, in the hands of every depositary, shall be held there to 
the credit of the Treasurer, or, in other words, as in the treasury; 
and the Constitution declares that no money shall be taken from 
the treasury but in conformity to appropriations made by law. 
Tlie bill makes any unlawful use of the money, by the officer in 
whose charge it is, punishable by ini]>risonment for a term not 
less than two years. To let the President have the money would 
be as criminal, under the law, as to let any other citizen of the 
country have it, and detection would be as certain in the one case 
as the other. The only difference would be that the President, 
if he were to make himself the knowing recipient, would subject 
himself to impeachment for the violation of the Constitution 
and the fraud upon the treasury; whereas the citizen would 
incur no criminal liability whatsoever. ^Yhere, then, is the 
dangerous increase of power given to the President? Suppose 
he remove the officer ; the money is still, in a legal sense, in the 



670 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

treasury. He gains no access to it by the removal, and if he did, 
he could make no use of it without a violation of the Constitu- 
tion, It was easy to see that this system would impose great 
additional responsibility upon the President, as he must select 
all the persons Avho are to be intrusted Avith public money, and 
it is his duty to- see that they all obey, observe and execute the 
law. He would venture the assertion that no honest man who 
was to hold the office of President, consulting merely his personal 
interests and responsibilities, separate from his sense of the jnib- 
lic good, would desire the passage of this law. He could see 
nothing desirable to that officer personally to grow out of it, 
Avhile he could see a fearful load of personal responsibility in 
every feature of the system. 

"But the officers who were to keep the public money were also 
executive officers, and i^erhajDS it was here, and not with the 
President, that this great increase of executive power was appre- 
hended. The same inquiries were alike applicable to this sug- 
gestion. How could the possession of money by the officer, 
which he could only use in pursuance of appropriations made by 
law, without subjecting himself to the severest punishment, 
increase the power and influence of that officer with his fellow- 
citizens ? Suppose he should become corrupt and violate the law. 
Would not every respectable man whom he should approach 
shun and avoid him; and could the certainty of detection give 
him time to establish an influence, based upon the power of the 
money embezzled, which would be dangerous to public liberty ? 
Most certainly not. In this, as in the case of the President, 
the responsibility, not the power and influence, of the officer 
would be increased. 

" Such was the view he was compelled to take of the charge 
of executive patronage made against the financial system pro- 
posed by the bill in its present form; but the imaginations of 
some had carried them beyond the present propositions, and 
induced them to fear that this was the mere commencement, the 
entering wedge to a multiplication of executive officers, until 
they should cover the whole land, like the locusts of Egypt, and 
eat out the substance of the people. Where was the foundation 
for this apprehension ? With whom rested the power of increas- 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 671 

ing officers of any character? Not, certainly, with the execu- 
tive. He can act in selecting men for office when the offices 
are created by Congress, and, with certain exceptions, he can 
remove men from office at his pleasure; but lie can cremate no 
office, nor can he multiply the number of officers of any grade 
or character. This, then, is not an objection against the execu- 
tive, but against the legislative power of the government; it is 
an objection which implies distrust, not of the President, but ol' 
ourselves. And are we afraid to trust ourselves in this matter, 
or do we stand in so much fear of those who may succeed us iu 
these seats that we would rather commit the finances of the 
country to incorporated banks than to the present or future 
representatives of the people and the States ? 

"But how stands the objection of executive patronage, as 
applied to the State bank deposit system? The first step in this 
system is the selection of some twenty, thirty or more banks, to 
do which the direct interest of all their officers, directors and 
stockholders must be addressed, and when selected the same 
interest is enlisted in whatever contract may be made. Here is, 
at once, an army of new persons brought within the reach of 
executive powder, not, like the salary officer, upon stipulated 
compensations, but whose interests are wholly dependent upon 
the extent of the patronage bestowed — upon the amount of 
money intrusted to their charge. Then come up llie competi- 
tions and appliances to obtain a selection, and the inducement to 
a vicious executive to excite hopes and create expectations 
throughout the wdiole line of banking institutions in all the 
States. But the selections are made, the money deposited and 
passed to the citizens among the other accommodations of the 
favored banks. This creates another influence far more extended 
and fearful — the influence of the debtors of the selected banks; 
for when appropriations are made by law, the executive officers — 
those w^ho are charged with the execution of the law — must 
direct the drafts which are to bring the money from the banks 
to meet them. Let any unprejudiced mind compare the influ- 
ences here embodied with the executive patronage conferred by 
the bill under discussion, and can the decision be in favor of the 
bank system in this respect ? 



672 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" But there is another view of this matter. He had shown 
that, under the system proposed by the bill, the executive could 
not reach the money in the hands of the depositary without sub- 
jecting both to a condign punishment. How is it here ? Sup- 
pose the executive corrupt, and the bank willing to be corrupted, 
or the reverse, and what is to hinder his obtaining any amount of 
the public money he pleases ? He takes it not as the money of the 
people, but as the money of the bank. It is not, in form, a loan 
from the public money on deposit, but an accommodation in the 
usual course of banking business ; and still, before the deposit- 
ing officer shall have left the counter of the institution, the 
executive may take the money he deposits, and no one is pun- 
ishable. The depositing officer himself, any other executive 
officer of the government, may do the same thing with equal 
impunity. 

"Has the system provided for by the bill, then, anything to 
fear from a comparison with that of the State bank deposit sys- 
tem, as to the dangers of an increase of executive patronage ? 
He could not so suppose. 

" Fourth. He would now institute a short comparison of Avhat 
he thought would be the relative effects of the two systems 
upon the State banking institutions themselves. 

" The system proposed by the bill would necessarily operate 
as a check upon the issues and expansions of those institutions, 
in either shape in which it had been proposed to pass it. If the 
notes of the banks continue to be received in payment of tlie 
public dues, and the depositaries are directed, as in that case 
they unquestionably should be, to call frequently and at short 
intervals for the balances against the banks, and to demand specie 
for those balances, this must operate as a powerful check upon all 
the banks in the vicinity of those depositaries where the collec- 
tions are large. If, on the other hand, the receipt of the bank- 
notes be gradually discontinued in the collection of the revenue, 
and specie collections substituted, while the change will create 
some demand upon the banks for specie, the disbursements of 
specie by the government will constantly distribute among the 
people a broader and more permanent basis for the paper circula- 
tion, which the banks will, of course, continue, growing out of 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 673 

their private operations. That the demand for specie may, to 
some extent, diminish the profits of banking, is more than pro- 
bable; but if the effect shall be to restrain the issues of the banks, 
to keep upon them a constant sense of the necessity of more 
specie capital to meet their liabilities, the operation, as past expe- 
rience abundantly proves, will be greatly beneficial to the com- 
munity, and will work rather a benefit than an injury to the 
institutions themselves. In the meantime, the disbursement by 
the government of the specie it receives cannot fail, not only to 
give stability and confidence, to some extent, at least, to the gen- 
eral currency, by continuing in active circulation some portions 
of the gold and silver upon which the whole is based, but must, 
to the extent of the circulation, have a tendency to strengthen 
the banks against sudden pressures and unfounded distrusts, by 
enabling them the more easily to arm themselves with coin. 

" What are the tendencies of the opposite system upon the 
banking institutions? Recent experience has answered this 
inquiry more forcibly than it was in his power to command lan- 
guage to answer it. The effect was to promote fearful expansions 
when large amounts of public money were placed upon deposit, 
and ruinous contractions when the necessities or the policy of the 
government required its payment. The effect was to stimulate 
to dangerous excesses, not the banks only, but their customers 
also, when money was abundant in the treasury, and to add to 
the pressure, by heavy calls from the treasury, when there was a 
scarcity. In short, the effect of the latter system upon the 
banks had proved, upon trial, to be unmixed evil, while the influ- 
ences of the former promised to be rather favorable than unfa- 
vorable. 

" Fifth. The next and most important comparison between the 
two systems was the influence of each upon the government of 
the country and its finances. The proposed system would place 
the money of the government, at all times, within the power and 
conti-ol of the government. It would enable the government, at 
all times, to pay its debts in a currency not depreciated, a cur- 
rency equal to the standard of the Constitution and the law. It 
would render the government financially independent, and main- 
tain it in that position. Under such a system we should no more 
43 



674 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

hear, what we were now daily hearing in this hall, that honest 
citizens had been defrauded, by being paid their demands against 
the treasury in bank paper, which was depreciated or worthless, 
and that Congress ought to indemnify them for their losses thus 
occasioned. These were some of the benefits certain to be 
derived to the government from the adoption of the system pro- 
vided for by the bill; but there was another, and, in his judg- 
ment, far greater benefit, equally certain to flow from its adop- 
tion. It would exempt the government fi-om the constan': and 
innumerable imputations of injuries to trade, to the currency, to 
credit, to the private affairs of individuals and . banks, from its 
financial movements. Was any person whom he addressed insen- 
sible to the moral and political evil growing out of these com- 
plaints; to their strong tendency to alienate the feelings of the 
l^eople from our most valuable institutions, and to bring them to 
look upon all government as a curse and not a blessing, as calcu- 
lated, not for their protection, but destruction and ruin ? He 
would remind the Senate, very briefly, of the course of these com- 
plaints for the last four years. 

" The government removed the public money from one single 
bank and placed it in several others. A clamor followed the act; 
a panic was excited; banks failed, merchants failed, money was 
made scarce, the currency was disturbed, credit received a shock, 
and, for some four months in succession, we heard nothing here 
but scenes of distress, general ruin, and almost famine ; and all 
in a time of as great plenty and abundance, not of the necessaries 
of life only, but of money, as our country had ever witnessed. 
The panic passed off, and business of every description, and 
enterprise of every character, sprung into increased life and 
activity. The public lands commenced to sell rapidly, and our 
revenues became excessive. Then came the second complaint 
which he proposed to notice, and it was, that the whole splendid 
public domain, that rich inheritance from our fathers of the 
Revolution, under the operation of the ' pet bank system,' was 
going or gone — was being exchanged, for what? For 'bank 
rags.' That complaint lasted us for the most of one session of 
Congress, but nothing was done by legislation to remedy the 
evil. The accumulations of revenue had by this time come to be 



Life and Ti3ies of Silas Witniiir. 675 

vast, and this gave rise to a third complaint. It was double in 
its character and contradictory with itself, and yet it entertained 
us during a large sliare of one of our sessions, and finally pro- 
duced legislation. It was, to-day, that the government was actu- 
ally locking up in the banks all the money of the country, while 
the honest and hard-working citizens were suffering for its use; 
to-morrow, the almost countless millions were loaned by the pet 
banks to favorites of the executive, and members of the dominant 
political party, to enable them to make speculations in the public 
lands, and in all other descriptions of property, to the injury of 
fair business men and the ruin of the poor. So far were these 
complaints carried, inconsistent and contradictory as they were, 
as to make a sensible impression upon the public mind, and 
finally to induce almost all the members of this body to vote for 
the deposit law of 1836, which was to dissipate this hoarded fund 
and place it in safe-keeping with the States. The Secretary of 
the Treasury commenced the necessary measures to execute this 
law, and very soon found that the money which had been so 
injuriously hoarded, in our debates here, had been in fact rather 
too much dissipated before Congress interfered with it. This 
raised another complaint. The Secretary was wantonly executing 
the law, because he did not like its provisions. He was giving 
drafts upon the banks which had the money, for acceptance and 
payment, as the law required; when, if he had given them for 
transfer merely, the banks would not have been injured. During 
the first part of this process the sale of the public lands continued 
at an accelerated pace; and, although Congress made a strenuous 
but fruitless efifort to remedy the evil, the complaint commenced 
again that the public domain was being exchanged for irrespon- 
sible bank paper. The President took up the subject, after 
Congress left it, and directed the land oflicers to receive nothing 
but gold and silver in payment for lands. This laid the founda- 
tion for a new and continuing complaint. The payment of the 
immense deposits to the States produced the necessity for equal 
collections on the part of the deposit banks from their customers. 
These collections occasioned a scarcity of money, and it was the 
' specie circular' which had done it. Their foreign debts pressed 
upon the merchants, and the calls upon them from the banks dis- 



676 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

enabled them to pay ; but the specie circular had wrought the 
mischief by marching all the gold and silver of the country 
to the west to purchase lands. Embarrassments continued to 
increase; extensive failures of merchants and others took place; 
and finally, in May last, all the banks of the country suspended 
payment. Still, the goverment was princii^ally in fault ; the 
specie circular had taken all the metallic currency to the interior, 
and prevented it from going to Europe to pay our foreign debt; 
and the banks could not pay specie until that debt was can- 
celed. Time passed on. The funds of the treasury were in 
the banks and could not be commanded, and an extra call of 
Congress became necessary to relieve the debtors of the gov- 
ernment and supply the treasury with funds. The banks were 
complained of for their excesses and improvidence ; and the 
fault was that of the government, for having placed in 
their hands such immense deposits, to be called for so sud- 
denly, and for having checked their excessive issue of paper by 
the specie circular. Congress was convened, and the present 
President transmitted his message, proposing to end these com- 
plaints by an entire severance of all business connection between 
the national treasury and the banking institutions. This, at once, 
changed the face of things, and showed the President and the 
administration hostile to the banks ; and now, although the 
foreign debt is paid, and foreign exchange down to par, the banks 
cannot resume payment for fear of the government. 

" He would ask, in all candor and in all sincerity, if any his- 
tory of facts could show more conclusively the impropriety of 
this connection between the finances of the country and the 
afiairs of individuals and banking incorporations; if there was 
a man who heard him, who did not see and feel the necessity of 
relieving the government of his country from these constant and 
contradictory complaints ? The proposed system will do that, 
and, in his judgment, that alone would be one of the greatest 
benefits which could be conferred upon the nation. 

" If such will be the influences, upon our finances and govern- 
ment, of the system proposed, what influences are to be expected 
from the State bank system ? Certainly, to place the money of 
the people beyond the control of the servants of the people, and 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 077 

within the control of the banks ; to disenable the government 
to pay its debts, except in a depreciated currency, whenever tb<; 
notes of the banks are depreciated; or to abandon its money, 
collected and accumulated in the banks to meet its debts, as a 
resource for that purpose, and to resort to its credit to raise the 
means by which legal payments can be made ; to render the 
country, at all times — under all circumstances and in every emci-- 
gency, even that of war not excepted, and after the money for 
the public use had been collected from the people — financially 
dependent upon banks, in the management of which it has no 
voice, and over which it has no control ; to subject the govern- 
ment to all the complaints which have been recapitulated, and 
volumes of others of a like character; in short, to subject the 
treasury of the nation to all the fluctuations to which an ordinary 
banking or commercial house is subject; to make it instrumental 
in promoting excesses in both, and then chargeable with all the 
evils which may befall either itself or the banking and mercantile 
interests. Should he spend the time of the Senate to prove that 
these were the necessary consequences of the system of State 
bank deposits? In the face ot recent and severe experience, 
both to the treasury and to the country, would proof of these 
positions be called for? That experience furnished the clearest 
and strongest proof, and those whom it had not convinced, it was 
in vain for him to attempt to convince by fact or argument. 
Such, to his mind, were the comparative influences of the two 
systems upon the government of the country and its finances. 

" Sixth. He would extend his comparison to a single other 
point, the influence of each system upon the general currency, 
and dismiss this part of the argument. 

" The system proposed was clear and certain in its action in 
this particular: It would secure a sound and standard currency 
for the national treasury, whether that currency should be gold 
and silver or bank paper, and it would exempt that treasury from 
the fluctuations of an unregulated and varying currency. So far, 
therefore, as the money operations of the government could influ- 
ence the currency generally, the influence exerted by this sys- 
tem must l)e salutary; as it must be to sustain a general currency 
equal to its own standard. If that currency should come, in 



678 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

time, to be gold and silver only, the system would exert another 
beneficial influence. It would not only present a standard of 
currency worthy of imitation, but, to the extent of the whole 
public disbursements, it would constantly circulate among the 
people a basis for the paper currency of the State banks, and 
thus aid them in keeping their representation of coin stable 
and firm, and equal in value to coin itself. Beyond these 
influences, it would leave the people and the States to regulate, 
in their own way, and without the interference of federal 
power, that portion of the general currency which, by the 
division of power under our system, falls within their juris- 
diction and is the constant subject of their action. It would 
then be clear to all, if that portion of the currency should sink 
below the standard of currency for the public treasury, that 
wrong existed somewhere in State legislation, or in the manage- 
ment of those intrusted by State legislation with the regulation 
of that currency; and the federal authorities would be free from 
imputation or suspicion, and would stand before the whole coun- 
try holding up the true standard of currency, and inviting from 
the State authorities a correction of the errors which should at 
any time disturb or depreciate that portion committed to their 
care. 

" How, in this respect, does the opposite system act ? The 
State banks are, to much the greatest, if not to the entire, extent, 
private institutions, controlled by private individuals and private 
interests, and owned in whole, or to the extent of a majority of 
the capital, by private citizens, as private property. Private 
gain, then, as a necessary and natural consequence of the very 
constitution of these banks, was their principle of government, 
and, as an equally necessary and natural consequence, they would 
keep that portion of the currency which they were authorized to 
furnish for the country at a sound standard value, when private 
interest and the prospect of private gain should so direct, and 
they would sufler it to depreciate by the same rule. Give them 
the national treasure, and permit them to subject it to the fluctu- 
ations of their interest, and can a stable currency be expected, 
either for the treasury or the people ? Who are the legitimate 
customers of the banks ? More particularly the merchants. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 079 

Their business pervades not the whole of their own country only, 
but the whole civilized world. The laws of the States of the 
Union, therefore, are regulations much too limited for them; uml 
even the laws and regulations of any single government, as to 
either trade or currency, are but municipal in their character 
when applied to their operations. Still, they themselves have 
local habitations and the case may well and frequently occur; 
when it is vastly more important to them that they should be 
able to command specie to export, in liquidation of their foreign 
debts, than that our local banks at home should redeem their 
notes in specie. What, in such a condition of trade and of the 
mercantile interest, will always be likely to be the condition of 
our local banks ? Set aside the consideration that the merchants 
may be able to control those institutions from the stock they 
hold, and merely assume that they are the principal debtors to 
the banks, and are to continue to be their principal customers; 
let the argument rest here, and give the banks the possession and 
control of the national treasure, which interest would prevail ? 
Would the treasury of the country be sustained, and the pay- 
ments to the public creditors be made in specie or its equivalent, 
or would the views and wishes of the merchants be consulted, 
and the currency be made to bend to private and corporate 
interests ? Let the experience of the last year answer the inquiry. 
He would express his confirmed opinion that, under such a sys- 
tem, the currency of the public treasury must share all the 
reverses and fluctuations of foreign and domestic trade, and all 
the hazards of corporate banking, as a private interest. Hence 
the operations of the treasury itself must be suspended, or the 
law of Congress, as to currency, violated, whenever revulsions 
shall oppress the country and the customers of the banks, or the 
alternative be resorted to, as it recently has been by the national 
authorities, to convoke Congress, relieve the banks and the pub- 
lic debtors, and resort to the credit of the nation to sustain its 
treasury until the natural operations of healthful business shall 
again restore the equilibrium. 

" Such, in his mind, were the probable influences of the two 
systems upon the general currency of the country. 

" He would now proceed to answer a very few of the promi- 



680 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

nent objections made to the bill, and pass, as rapidly as possible, 
to his conclusion. The first of these objections which he would 
notice was that the system proposed by the bill was an attack 
upon the State banking institutions, calculated to destroy their 
credit and usefulness. This, if true, was a grave charge, and, 
therefore, required some consideration. An attack must be an 
infringement of some vested right, or a course of treatment so 
manifestly against the public good as to partake of wantonness 
and immorality, or a spirit of revenge. Was any right of these 
institutions proposed to be infringed upon ? Did their charters, 
granted by the States for fixed and specified purposes, include 
among those purposes the safe-keeping or profitable use of the 
monej^ of the whole country ? Was there a provision that they 
should be fiscal agents of the national treasury, or that their 
credit should be sustained by the money and credit of the people 
of the United States ? No. No such provision was ever heard 
of in the charter of any State bank. No right of the institu- 
tions was, then, infringed, by withholding from them both the 
keeping and use of the pul)Iic money. 

" Was any faith or confidence, due from this government to the 
States or to these institutions of their creation, violated by the 
proposed separation ? The States had chartered banks for par- 
ticular locations, with capitals such as the locations seemed to 
demand; but would any one pretend that, in granting these char- 
tei's, the State Legislatures had counted upon the money in the 
national treasury, or the credit of the federal government, to 
sustain and make useful the banking institutions to which they 
were giving life and power as banks of issue and discount ? Did 
any State Legislature ever, by word or deed, cause it to be under- 
stood, either by the people or the institutions, that banks of their 
creation were mere skeletons, powerless and helpless, and that 
the life and health-giving principle was to be breathed into them 
by an extension of the patronage of the federal government, in 
the shape of a profitable use of its money, and a command of its 
confidence and credit ? Never. Had the federal government, 
by any act or expression, authorized an expectation of this 
patronage and confidence, except upon conditions which had been 
violated by the banks, and had thus forced a separation between 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 681 

them and the treasure of the country ? He was aware of no such 
act or expression. The separation exists, and lias been forced 
upon the nation by the banks themselves, and the simple question 
is, shall we renew it ? In what sense can the decision of that 
question, however that decision may be made, be an attack u|)oii 
the banks? The idea was a mistaken one, and the objection, in 
any light in which it could be viewed, was unfounded and unjust. 
" He proposed, however, for the purpose of illustrating tiic 
truth of this conclusion and making it more clear, to call to the 
minds of Senators a single chapter in our financial history. 
During forty years of the existence of the government, under 
the federal Constitution, a national bank had been in existence, 
and, he spoke from recollection, but he believed the national bank 
had been, for the whole period, the exclusive depository of the 
public money and the exclusive fiscal agent of the treasury. He 
■was sure it was so during the twenty years' existence of the last 
national bank, and he thought it was so under the old bank. 
Then the State banks were not depositories of the national 
treasure nor fiscal agents of the national treasury, and had it 
ever been asserted that this legislation was an attack upon these 
institutions, or that their credit and usefulness were thereby 
destroyed? But, again: during the existence of the last Bank 
of the United States the notes of the State banks were not dis- 
bursed to the public creditors at all, and were not receivable in 
payment of the public dues but at the pleasure of the national 
bank, and then, as every bank receives the notes of its neighbor 
institution, to take them out of circulation, and return them 
promptly, to be converted into specie or specie funds. Did these 
State institutions languish and die under this congressional legis- 
lation ? Did they not rather take root and flourish, and become 
sound and stable and useful ? Has not a large and powerful 
political party in this country ever contended that the checks 
and restraints, exercised by the national bank, during this 
period, over the State institutions, were salutary and proper? 
That it was a great balance-wheel, regulating and equalizing 
the movement of the whole complex machinery ? What is 
proposed by the bill but that, to the extent of its operations, 
the national treasury shall form the same check and restraint 



682 LiFJn AND Times of Silas Wright. 

upon the local banking institutions ? That it shall keep the 
public money independent of them? That it shall either not 
receive their notes in payment of the public dues, or, receiving, 
shall frequently present them for conversion into specie or specie 
funds ? The only difference will be that the treasury will not 
enter into competition with the local banks in the business of 
banking; that it will leave that whole field to them, and merely 
content itself with a sound currency for its transactions. How, 
then, is it possible that those who saw such benign influences to 
the local institutions from the wholesome restraints of a national 
bank, should see such baneful effects to follow the same influ- 
ences when flowing from the public treasury ? — should see there 
an attack upon the institutions, a prostration of their credit and 
a total destruction of their usefulness ? 

" He was aware that the system proposed was new, and substan- 
tially untried, so far as the legislation and the practice of our 
government was concerned ; and it would be admitted by all, 
that, as a new measure, it had met the full share of d'enunciation, 
which almost all changes from established custom, almost all 
reforms, however valuable and useful, are destined to meet, when 
presented in the mere shape of propositions for the acceptance of 
the public. It was not his habit to speak disrespectfully here of 
the actions or the motives of any; and he certainly did not intend, 
in the remark he was about to make, to express any want of 
charity toward the course or opinions of any side of the House, 
or any individual in it. He yielded to all that credit for purity 
of purpose and sincerity of intention which he wished them to 
award to him; but he must say that he had never seen more 
active, zealous and persevering efforts to forestall public opinion, 
upon any measure of legislation, than had been used toward 
this, from the appearance of the message of the President, at the 
extra session, to the present hour. He had seen this with the 
more deep regret, because some of the most respectable, intelli- 
gent and influential of those who had been friends and supporters 
of the administration, and who, he trusted, were yet so, were 
among the most active in opposition to this measure. They so 
acted because they so felt and so thought ; and if they used 
efforts to prejudice the bill in the public mind, it was because 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 683 

they deprecated its passage as, in their judgments, injurious to 
the public interests. 

"He would entreat them, however, to pause and reflect. 
Experience had tested the imperfections of the State bank depo- 
sit system, of wliich they were advocates, while experience had 
done little to approve or condemn the system proposed by tlie 
bill. It had been in substantial operation since the suspension 
of specie payments by the banks, in May last. It was forced 
into operation by that suspension. It found the currency of the 
country deranged, the credit of the country depressed, and the 
business of the country prostrate and at a stand. He would not 
say that these were the consequences of the State bank deposit 
system. He had said upon that point all he intended to say; 
but it was matter of history that these disasters had come upon 
the country under the practical operation of that system. What 
had been the effect of the operation, for two-thirds of a year, of 
the system which it was supposed would destroy credit, depress 
property, discourage enterprise and exertion, and send the coun- 
try back to a state of barbarism ? Foreign exchanges had been, 
for some time, down to and below par in our commercial mar- 
kets ; thus affording conclusive evidence that our foreign debt 
had been reduced within ordinary limits ; domestic exchanges 
were rapidly approximating a healthful state, furnishing the 
same evidence that internal trade was gradually and steadily 
equalizing itself ; property retained a fair value, and found 
a steady market; credit and confidence were gaining strength; 
and the banks, as a general remark, were recovering from their 
late excesses, and preparing for a speedy resumption of specie 
payments. Such seemed to be the history of our business pros- 
pects at the present moment. He did not mention these 
things to ascribe them to the operations of the national treasury, 
or to the manner in which those operations had been conducted 
since the suspension of the banks, but to prove that the practical 
operation of a system for the management of our finances, such 
as is substantially provided for by the bill, had not had the effect 
to retard and defeat these great and beneficial business results, 
nor to repress the immense energies and to cripple the vast 
resources of our extended country. 



684 LiFJS AND TUIES OF SiLAS WrIGHT. 

"Surely, then, so far as experience has afforded evidence, it 
offers no cause for discouragement to the friends of the measure; 
and inasmuch as opinions beyond that, whether favorable or unfa- 
vorable, are little more than conjecture, the opposers of the bill 
should not demand of us to surrender our favorable judgment, 
though thus slightly tested, in favor of a measure which repeated 
experiment, both in adversity and in prosperity, has proved to be 
delusive and dangerous. 

"The next objection he proposed to notice was, that the opera- 
tions of the bill would be to separate the government from the 
people, and to secure a sound currency for the public officers and 
a base currency for the country. 

"This, again, was a startling objection and required examina- 
tion. Its first assumption was, that the tendency of the measure 
under discussion would be to separate the government of the 
country from the people of the country — to elevate the former 
and depress the latter; and the second was, that the separation 
would be marked by a difference in the value of the currency to 
be provided for and secured to each. Had either of these assump- 
tions any foundation in fact, or even in fair apprehension ? 

" He had already attempted to show, and thought he had suc- 
ceeded in showing, that the financial system proposed by the bill 
was preferable to the State bank deposit system in the following 
respects, namely: In the safety it afforded to the public moneys; 
in the expenses and risks attending its administration; in its 
salutary influences upon the banking institutions themselves ; in 
the limitations of patronage added to the executive branch of 
the government; in the independence it secures to the govern- 
ment financially, and the exemption it confers from injurious 
imputations; and in its tendency, to the full extent of the opera- 
tions of the national treasury and of the exertion of all the con- 
stitutional power of this govei*nment, to produce and maintain a 
sound and stable currency for the whole country. If he had suc- 
ceeded in establishing these positions, would it, could it, be said 
that a system jjossessing such advantages was calculated to pro- 
duce separation and alienation between the people of the country 
and the government of their choice? He could not believe it. 

" But the objection assumed that this separation was to grow 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 6S5 

out of the different currencies produced, for the government and 
the people, by the necessary action of the system. Tliut tlie 
effect of the bill would be, and was intended to be, to produce 
and maintain a uniform and sound currency ibr the national 
treasury and for all who might have demands upon it, as well 
the officers of the government as others, was most freely admit- 
ted. Indeed, this was claimed as one of the princii)al merits of 
the system. But did it follow that, because the bill had this 
tendency, it would therefore tend to debase the general currency 
of the people? Certainly not. No such consequence followed. 

"On the contrary, it had been already shown that, so far as it 
should exert any influence upon the general currency, that influ- 
ence must be to raise that currency to a level with thai secured 
to the treasury. If, then, the people were to have a base cur- 
rency, they were to have it, not in consequence of the bill, l)ut in 
defiance of it; they were to receive it, not from the public ti-ea- 
sury, but from the State banks; not from the evils of the legisla- 
tion of Congress, but from the evils of State legislation. Did 
any one pretend that the bill could exert an influence to debase 
any portion of the currency upon which it had no direct action? 
He had not heard it so contended, and he felt sure that no such 
position would be assumed. If the currency upon which it did 
directly act and the standard of which it regulated were to be 
base, then it might be well apprehended that its indirect influ- 
ence would be to draw down the general currency to its level; 
but as the gist of the complaint is that the standard of currency 
it assumes for the government is higher than that of the general 
currency, so it follows, by a parity of reasoning, that its indirect 
influence must be to raise the general currency to its standard. 

" In all this he was constrained, most respectfully, to ask where 
was the ground of complaint, unless gentlemen were ready to 
take the position that a sound, uniform and standard currency 
could not be sustained in the countr3% and that, to avoid invidi- 
ous distinctions between the government and the people, the 
national Legislature, possessing the power to fix the standard of 
currency, should at once adopt a base standard, and thus conform 
the currency of the treasury to that which it might be the interest 
of the local banking institixtions to maintain. He did not believe 



686 Life and Times of Silas Wl-ight. 

that any advocate for such a doctrine was to be found here; but 
if such a one should appear, he liad only first to deny the posi- 
tion wholly, and to assert that a sound currency could be sus- 
tained in this country, without an infringement u[)on the powers 
granted to Congress, by the Constitution, for the means of accom- 
plishing the object ; and second, if the position should be granted, 
to deny the inference, and contend that it was the constitutional 
duty of Congress to keej) the currency of the national treasury 
up to the standard of gold and silver, in any event. 

" The next, and only other, objection he proposed to notice 
was, that the tendency of the system provided for by the bill 
would be to withdraw from circulation and use, and to hoard in 
the several depositories, too great a portion of the gold and silver 
of the country. 

" He had but a brief answer to this objection. It never could 
be true at times when the revenue and expenditures of the govern- 
ment were properly adjusted. If they were equal, as they should 
be, the receipts of revenue would be taken in one hand, and the 
disbursements for expenses would be made with the other. 
Nothing could be hoarded but the amount which the widely 
extended operations of the treasury compelled it to keep hi 
transitu / and that was just as much, and no more, hoarded than 
the money of the merchant at a distant point, either during the 
time that notice of its collection was traveling to him in the 
mail, or his draft for it was passing back to the point where the 
money was on deposit. This amount would vary from three to 
five millions of dollars, including the amount constantly retained 
in tlie mints in the process of coinage; and he would repeat that, 
when the revenue and expenditures should bear a just proportion 
to each other, as they always should, no further or more danger- 
ous hoarding could take place under the bill. 

" But suppose that a time should again come when overtrading 
and speculation, in every branch of business, should commence 
the accumulation of another surplus revenue, such as had afflicted 
the country for the last few years, then, for himself, he should 
consider this tendency of the bill one of its most valuable fea- 
tures. Let overtrading go on, and speculation spread, and let the 
amounts paid for duties and lands be collected in gold and silver, 



Life and Times of Silas WKiaiir. ()S7 

and hoarded in the public treasury and by its depositaries, except 
so much as is wanted to meet the fair expenditures of the govern- 
ment, and how far does any man believe these deranging ;iii(l 
injurious business excesses would proceed ? Not, Mr. President, 
to the prostration of business and credit, and the currency of tlic 
country. No, sir ; the banks, instead of promoting, would bi' 
compelled to arrest them, and to restore business to its legitimate 
and proper channel, before the country could receive a shock, or 
the people injury. 

" It was wrong for him, however, to spend the time of the 
Senate in the discussion of this objection, as it was expressly met 
by a provision in the bill. He referred to the twenty-first sec- 
tion, which made it the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
whenever there should be on deposit to the credit of the treasurer 
a sum greater than four millions of dollars, to dissipate the 
money so hoarded by an investment in national or State stocks. 
This must relieve the apprehensions of all upon this point, as 
four millions was the greatest amount which could, at any one 
time, be permitted to remain in the possession and keeping of all 
the depositaries constituted by the bill. As, however, he had 
discussed the provisions of this section somewhat at length, in 
the course of his remarks upon the provisions of tlie bill gene- 
rally, he would oiuit any further remarks here. 

" He had now closed what he proposed to say, having particu- 
lar reference to the system of finance for the national treasury 
recommended by the committee, or as to the ostensible antagon- 
ist system of State bank deposits. 

"But there was a third alternative — a national bank — which 
he must not omit to notice, iu his extended discussion of this 
great subject. He was bound, however, after having so long 
trespassed upon the time of the Senate, to relieve the members 
from the apprehension that he was now to enter upon this inter- 
minable field of debate. No: nothing in this field presented to 
him matter for debate. He entertained the most firm convictions 
that the Constitution of the United States had conferred upon 
Congress no power to charter such an institution; but every 
argument upon that great question had been again and again 
presented to Congress and the nation in a manner much more 



688 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

forcible, and from sources much more commanding, than any- 
thing which could be advanced by him. It was, therefore, to 
him a question not for discussion but for action, and, unless his 
present views upon it should be radically changed, for negative 
action only. 

"He had heard, since he had been honored with a seat in this 
body, many ingenious arguments in favor of the power, but all 
had sought to derive it from necessity or expediency; and it was 
due to the authors of these arguments to say that, to his mind, 
no very nice distinction had been preserved between necessity 
and expediency. It had been said that a uniform currency was 
necessary for the country; that such a currency could not be 
produced or maintained without a national bank, and that, there- 
fore, Congress had the power to charter such an institution. 
That a uniform currency was expedient and highly desirable for 
our wide-spread country, no one could doubt; but that the coun- 
try could get on very comfortably without such a currency, had 
been proved by the actual experience of several periods in our 
history. That a sound and standard currency was necessary to 
the existence of commerce; that such a currency could not be 
established and sustained in our country but by congressional 
legislation, and that, therefore. Congress had the power to create, 
as well as to regulate, such a currency, has been contended here. 
No one will be disposed to question the position that a sound 
and standard currency is very desirable to a commercial country; 
but that commerce can be carried on, to a considerable extent, 
without money of any description, is a fact not to be questioned. 
These instances are mentioned, not to question the expedient and 
useful tendency of the arguments, so far as they go, to show that 
a uniform currency is highly important to every civilized country, 
and that a sound medium of exchange is of the first utility in 
commerce, but to question how far the argument of necessity, in 
either case, can be safely relied upon as the basis of a grant of 
constitutional power, and to show that, in either argument, there 
is no little difficulty in settling the dispute as to where expediency 
and utility end and necessity begins. For himself, he repudiated 
all such arguments, and all arguments, of every character, founded 
upon simple necessity, as establishing grants of power under the 



Life and 'Times of Silas Weight. 089 

Constitution of the United States in favor of the Congress of the 
United States. 

"A single remark upon the question of chartering a national 
bank, as a mere matter of expediency, if all questions of consti- 
tutional power were out of the way, and he would dismiss this 
topic. The experience of his own time, the late proceedings of 
the late Bank of the United States, had satisfied his mind that 
the dangers to our political and civil institutions from such an 
organized money power vastly overbalance any anticipated bene- 
fits, and that, as a simple question of expediency, such an institu- 
tion ought not to be chartered by Congress. Neither the hour 
of the day, the patience of the Senate, nor his own strength, 
would permit him to enter upon a further discussion of this point 
at present; and his only purpose having been to pronounce the 
opinion he had pronounced, he would pass to his conclusion. 

" The three alternatives had been presented. The condition of 
the public treasury, of the currency, of the business of the coun- 
try and general public expectation, demanded action from Con- 
gress. The committee of which he was a member had presented 
to the Senate the bill upon the table, as the action which a 
majority of its members proposed. This bill was to be opposed 
from two sides of the House. The friends of the State bank 
deposit system, and the friends of a national bank, were alike, and 
together, to be met and overcome, or the bill could not pass. 

" In this condition of the question, and of the Senate, he con-, 
sidered it to be his indispensable duty to present, what he believed 
to be tlie real and true issue, fairly and fully to the Senate and 
the country. And what was that ? 

" In his judgment, it was the adoption of some system based 
upon the principles of the bill under discussion, or a national 
bank. He saw no prospect of success for any middle ground. 
What were the evidences of our senses upon this subject ? Look 
at the divisions in this body. The party friendly to a national 
bank had always repudiated the State bank deposit system as 
dangerous in its additions to executive power, as inefficient as to 
the currency, and as unsafe as to the public money. Was there 
any evidence that those members of that party here had changed 
their opinions as to that system? He knew of none; and were 
44 



690 Life and Times of ISilas Wrwbt. 

he to judge from the language of that portion of the public 
press which was supposed to reflect their opinions, or from what 
had but recently passed here in relation to the failure of a deposit 
bank in Boston, he should be compelled to say that no change in 
that quarter had taken place. But he would appeal to the gen- 
tlemen themselves, and ask if recent experience, as to that finan- 
cial system for the national treasury, had changed their feelings 
toward it — had endeared it to them as one they were now 
desirous to make their own ? Are they willing to surrender their 
favorite project of a national bank for this alternative ? Will 
they not tell us, in frankness and candoi-, that, with one or two 
solitary exceptions, perhaps every man of them is for a national 
bank, as, in their judgments, the only effectual remedy for the 
financial difficulties of the country ? 

" If such continues to be the feeling of the party which 
opposed the late administration, and equally opposes the jsresent, 
what is the condition, in this respect, of tliose who have hitherto 
supported both ? Is there not, numerically speaking, a very great 
degree of unanimity of sentiment with them, in favor of the bill, 
at least so far as a practical and hona fide separation from the 
banks is concerned ? He supposed that to be the fact, and he 
referred to this division of feeling here, upon this subject, with 
no pleasure. He knew and felt that those with whom he had 
long, intimately and pleasantly associated, personally and politi- 
cally, were to differ with him upon this measure. He regretted 
the difference as much as any one of them could. He entertained 
no unkindness of feeling toward them on account of this differ- 
ence of opinion upon a particular bill. He yielded to them all 
the sincerity of convictions of public duty which he claimed for 
himself; and he assured them, one and all, that no remark which 
he had made, or was about to jnake, had been or should be, on 
his part, intended to wound their feelings or censure their course. 
They, like himself, were responsible to their constituents and the 
country for their acts here, and he did not entertain a doubt that 
that accountability would be discharged by them according to 
their most firm convictions of right. Yet he must appeal to 
them to say if they did not believe the public opinion of the 
country was very justly reflected in the two House of Congress 



Life and Times of Silas Wriout. (j<)l 

upon the three alternative propositions he had discussed? If 
they had seen any evidence, from recent political results any- 
where, to authorize the belief that the State bank system of 
deposits, to which they still adhered, was gaining favor in iiiiy 
quarter? If they did not perceive that the two other systems 
were dividing the great mass of the public mind of the whole 
country ? If they did not feel, in the recent history and present 
condition of the State banks, that public confidence could not 
again be restored to that system of deposits by legislative enact- 
ments ? If they did not fear, in assuming the positions they 
were compelled to assume, that banks were necessary to the suc- 
cessful and proper administration of the finances of the federal 
government ; that it is within the power, and is, in some sort 
and to some extent, the duty of this government to regulate the 
whole currency of the country; that the regulation of exchanges, 
too, if not directly, was incidentally a matter for which the 
government should be held responsible, and that the custody and 
safe-keeping of the public treasure should be committed to banks, 
and not to the constituted authorities of the government; did 
they not fear, he would repeat, that, in assuming these positions, 
they were merely aiding and strengthening the friends of a 
national bank ? That they were furnishing what might be con- 
sidered as evidence, to those who could listen to such an argu- 
ment, to prove that a national bank was necessary under our 
system ? He did not put these inquiries from anything which 
had been advanced here, but they were suggested from the 
course of argument which he saw constantly used in the public 
press and elsewhere, to sustain the ground which these friends 
had assumed, and he must say that it seemed to him like yield- 
ing the whole field to the advocates of a national bank ; that it 
was making such an institution, and some system founded upon 
the principles of the bill under discussion, the real alternatives 
before the country, and bringing the contest, if not here, else- 
where, to that issue. 

" He was sorry to have detained the Senate so long, and, as 
the best atonement he could make, he would resume his seat and 
trouble them no farther." 



692 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

The bill finally passed the Senate on the 26tli of March, 
1838 — yeas 27, nays 25 — and was sent to the House, 
where it was, on the next day, laid on the table by a vote 
of ayes 106, nays 98. No further proceedings appear to 
have been taken on this subject during the twenty-fifth 
Congress. The matter was revived in the twenty-sixth 
Congress, and a similar bill passed both Houses and 
became a law on the 4tli of July, 1840. 

A bill had been reported, of a similar character, in the 
House by Mr. Cambrelling, which was rejected in the 
House on the 25tli of June, 1838, by a vote of 111 to 125. 
A motion to reconsider was rejected — ayes 21, nays 205. 

Me. Wright to Lucius Moody. 

" Senate Chamber, ) 

" Washington, I'lth February, 1838. \ 

" My Dear Brother. — Your favor came to us some days since. 
I will be frank and tell you that my first effort was to persuade 
Clarissa to give you an answer and save me the time and labor, 
as I have on hand here constantly more than I can possibly 
attend to well. Yet my persuasion failed, and I was thinking 
about attempting to use authority and compulsion when along 
came a note of invitation to us to dine with the President on 
Saturday. We accepted, of course, and all answer to your letter 
was swallowed up in preparation for the dinner. It came. We 
attended. Mrs. Wright was led to the table by the President 
himself, seated at his right hand, by a caution very proper to 
the occasion, did not get under the table, and went through the 
whole ceremony in fine style. We got home at ten o'clock. I 
did not get locked out again, because I did not leave the bed- 
room for a time long enough to permit of turning the key. Not 
that I would insinuate that a disposition existed in any quarter 
to lock me out, but that having once had my fears excited in 
that direction I was a little sceary upon that point. 

"However, the night passed well, and the morning found Cla- 
rissa in fine health and in as fine spirits; but I observed in the 
course of the day that she was rather particulai'. The rocking 



Life and Times of Silas Wiuaur. f}!):] 

chair or my full-stuffed and cushioned '^hair were tlie only seats 
which seemed to be convenient, and dresses and dinners and 
agreeable parties and such like subjects seemed to be matters of 
greater moment than on any day before. 

"From this you will see that we are well and getting belter, 
although there were forty-five candles lighted upon <>ur dinner 
table, and the olives were served at the usual time an<l in the 
usual profusion. 

"As to that boy, Lucius Horace or Horace Lucius, we would 
prefer his personal presentment to your brags about him, 
although we acknowledge his polite note, and his aunty, when 
she gets doion from the dinner, will send him some evidence of 
her relationship and affection, 

"Tell Julia, if she will write, Clarissa will be compcll(;d to 
answer her, and that nothing could give us more pleasure than 
to hear from her. 

" In the meantime, when you shall be willing to write, I will 
give you nonsense if I cannot give you sense, and if I cannot 
find any other tune will write as I do now, from my seat and 
under the hearing of fervent speeches upon various important 
subjects, and then you must not hold me personally responsible 
for anything I write. 

" I am most happy to say to you that Clarissa's health is regu- 
larly though slowly improving, and that our hojies strengthen 
every day that she will eventually recover sound health again, 

" Most truly yours, 

" SILAS WRIGHT, Jr. 

" Capt. Lucius Moody." 

Letter from Mr. Wright to Johx Leslie Russell. 

" Washington, \mh Ajjril, 1838. 
" My Dear Sir.— At my request Mr. Croswell has sent me a 
number of the inclosed report, to the number of our towns, an<] 
I have sent one to some active friend in each House. I send one 
to you, though I doubt not he will send some copies to you him- 
self. I think it important that these subscriptions should be 
extended, as far as practicable, in our county, as we are to have a 



694 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

desiderate fight in the fall, and so much do the allied opposition, 
and the conservative platoon in particular, think of breaking in 
upon our county and congressional district, that they will spare 
no efforts to eifect it. Can you not induce some few persons in 
the vicinity of North and South Canton post-offices to subscribe, 
so ns to get some five or six, or more, copies sent to each of those 
offices ? 

" Then will not our friend Col, Barker get a few subscribers for 
his neighborliood, and our friend Whitney for the Rapids? 
Suppose you suggest to Harrison the propriety of subscribing 
for ten copies, to be directed to the proper names at the Rapids, 
and sent to the North Canton office. 

" If you see Mr. Church, do me the favor to tell him that I 
have this morning, for the first, received information of the pay- 
ment of the first installment of Mr. Loyd's estate, one-third, and 
that the legacies will be paid soon. Nothing can be paid to the 
residuary legatees until the debts and other legacies are all ascer- 
tained and j)aid off, but the person I have substituted to transact 
the business there tells me that he expects there will be a small 
sum out of this one-third coming to them, I wrote to New 
York by this mail for information as to the best mode of remitting 
the funds. My agent writes that the payment has been made in 
the funds of the New Orleans banks, which is, of course, in the 
notes of those banks, and that the payment will be made to him 
in the same medium, and he requests instructions as to what he 
shall do with the money. I have written to him this morning, 
telling him I will give him directions in a few days. He advises 
me to let him send a certificate of deposit, because he says a 
draft on New York will cost a high premium, but he does not 
say how high. My object in writing to New York is to learn 
how I can sell a certificate of deposit, and what premium I ought 
to pay for a draft. Tell Mr. Church I will get the business done 
at the lowest rate I can, but that he must prepare his mind for a 
severe charge of premiums and commissions, etc. 

" In great haste, most truly yours, 

"SILAS WRIGHT, Jr. 
"John Leslie Russell, Esq." 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. G95 



Chapter LXVIIl. 

THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY BILL AND MR TALLMADGE. 

AVlien the independent treasury bill was called up, on 
the 8th of February, 1838, Mr. Tallmadge, Mr. Wright's 
colleague, made a demonstration against it, and took the 
bank side of the question, and assumed that he, and not 
Mr. Wright, truly represented their constituency. Mr. 
Wright thus defended his position : 

" Mr. Wkight said he rose more because he supposed the Sen- 
ate would expect him to reply than because he was disposed to 
do so. The remarks of his colleague had been principally con- 
fined to questions belonging to the State which they had the 
honor to represent here, and its citizens, and not to questions 
involved in the discussion before this body. 

" It had been his object, and, he believed, his habit, to confine 
himself to the debate before the Senate, and he could not be 
induced now to vary from a rule which lie had found so salutary. 
In the part he had taken in those debates, he had endeavored to 
discuss every topic with temper and moderation, and to respect 
the feelings and courtesy due to every member of the body, 
whatever opinions he might hold. 

" That, too, he intended to do now. And as it was certain that 
any discussion between himself and his colleague upon questions 
which did not pertain to our duties here, which related to the 
action of their common constituents, and to the results of elec- 
tions and the like, would be almost certain to throw them into 
conflict, to develop a radical difference of opinions and views 
between them, and perhaps to excite personal feeling, he declined 
all such discussions wholly. 

" He had, as he had occasion to say upon a very recent occa- 
sion, intended to treat his honorable and respected colleague 
with every kindness, and he could not follow him into a debate 
which might place the full execution of that intention beyond 
his power. 



696 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

" They could yet both agree in one opinion : tliat they repre- 
sented a people as intelligent, as free, as uncorrupted and incor- 
ruptible, as the constituency of any two Senators upon the floor. 
Whatever, then, might be their opinions of tlie causes which 
influenced a particular election, or to which its results were attri- 
butable, or whatever they might think of the influence of pend- 
ing questions upon future elections, they could not claim that 
their opinions or wishes would materially influence that constitu- 
ency. If they were free and intelligent and uncorrupted this 
inference was not authorized. 

" The only question, then, which, as between themselves, they 
could properly debate was, in cases in which they were com- 
pelled to difl^er, which represented that constituency truly. This 
was a question which he could not discuss with his colleague here. 
It might be interesting to an audience, but it could not be useful 
to the country to hear them wrangle upon such a point. 

"He had not another single remark to make in reply to his col- 
league. He [Mr. Tallmadge] had understood the late annual 
message of the President to cast an imputation upon the inde- 
pendent electors of the State of New York of corruption at the 
November election in that State. This was the first construc- 
tion of that character Avhich had been put upon that document 
in any quarter. He, Mr. W., did not so understand it. The 
President alluded to the fact that the election was exclusively 
for State and not at all for federal oflicers. He also I'eferred to 
the immense State and local and corporate and private interests 
which must be presented to the State Legislature then to be 
elected, and ventured to infer that the action of the people at 
the polls might be supposed to have been influenced by these 
considerations, and not by the questions of a national character 
then depending before the country and which might come before 
the present Congress. This w^as his understanding of the senti- 
ments of the message ; but the document was before the country, 
and was as well understood by the constituents of his colleague 
and himself as by them. A large portion of those constituents 
were as capable of jjlacing a proper construction upon the lan- 
guage of the President as they were ; and he miist, therefore, 
decline any fux'ther discussion of that point with his colleague 
here. 



Life and Tihes of Silas Wright. 697 

" He must say, however, that he felt tlie deepest eousciuiisness, 
and he knew his colleague ouglit to feel the same, that the Presi- 
dent was incapable of making a charge of corruption against tlie 
people of his native State — that he had not done it in fact and 
certainly had not in intention." 

Here Mr. Clay, of Kentucky, came to the assistance of 
Mr. Tallmadge, and thanked him for his criticisms on the 
President's message, which Mr. Wright refustnl to dis- 
cuss, because it was not the subject-matter before the 
Senate. Mr. Clay said, in relation to this refusal, that 
Mr. Weight " showed that he acknowledged the truth of 
the maxim that ' discretion was the better part of valor.' " 
Mr. Wright made the following appropriate reply : 

" Mr. Wright said the Senator from Ken'.acky [Mr. Clay] was 
over kind to his colleague; that if a controversy must arise 
between him and his colleage here, he, Mr. W., should have 
more than he could well attend to, to meet upon equal terms his 
colleague alone, without tlie weight of the distinguished Senator 
in the scale against him. It was, therefore, wholly unnecessary 
that the patriotic gentleman should have interposed himself as a 
shiehl to his colleague upon the present occasion. 

"He could not, however, forbear one remark in reply to the 
Senator himself. That distinguished and experienced statesman 
had told him that, in declining the controversy with his colleague, 
he had illustrated the maxim ' that discretion is the better part 
of valor.' This was a sound maxim, and he, Mr. W., had 
intended, in all his actions here, to bear it constantly in mind. 
Since hearing the views of the Senator upon that part of the 
message of the President to which his honorable colleague had 
alluded, and his declaration as to the resolution in censure of the 
President, which he says he was inclined and prepared to offer, 
but which he finally omitted to present, he must say that, upon 
one single occasion, the gentleman had consulted the rule which 
he had so promptly complimented him for following. In this 
case discretion was, most clearly, the better part of valor in his 
action." 

To this Mr. Clay, good humoredly, replied : "All pretty 
fair; very fair, sir." 



698 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter LXIX. 

NEW YORK CITY REMONSTRANCE AGAINST THE INDEPEN- 

DENT TREASURY. 

Mr. Tallmadge, on the 7tli of March, 1838, presented a 
remonstrance, signed by upwards of 8,000 legal voters, as 
he stated, against the passage of the independent treasury 
bill. He said the proposed system was destructive to all 
the great leading interests of the country, and the measure 
the most dangerous ever presented to an American Con- 
gress. He said, "we had now an empty treasury; the 
sources of revenue were di'ied up ; commerce and inland 
trade were languishing to the last degree, and if this Con- 
gress adjourn without doing something for the relief of 
the people, the consequences would be disastrous in the 
extreme." 

Mr. Webster made remarks to a similar effect, Mr. 
Wright presented his own vindication and that of the 
friends with whom he acted, as follows : 

"Mr. Wright said he should at this time, as upon all former 
occasions, enter into one of these incidental morning debates, 
arising upon the presentation of a petition, with extreme reluc- 
tance. After the remarks of his colleague [Mr. Tallmadge], how- 
ever, and those which had fallen from the Senator from Massa- 
chusetts [Mr. Webster], he felt himself compelled to enter his 
respectful dissent from the positions taken by those gentlemen, 
lest his silence might, by possibility, be deemed an assent to 
them. 

" The petition was from the common constituents of his col- 
league and himself. It was numerously signed, and he doubted 
not the petitioners were as respectable as any other body of citi- 
zens, of equal numbers, who had addressed Congress upon this 
interesting subject. He was happy to see their expressions of 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 699 

opinion meet this marked attention from the Senate. These, like 
all the other citizens of the State, had a right to claim for their 
opinions and interests the most respectful and faithful considera- 
tion of himself and his colleague. From his colleague they 
would certainly receive that attention, and it was his firm deter- 
mination that they should receive it from him also. He rejoiced 
that they possessed an equal right with himself to speak here. 
They had spoken, and they should be faithfully and patiently lis- 
tened to by him, and, so far as his convictions of duty would 
permit, their wishes should be binding upon him. 

" Still, it could not be new to the Senate or to his respected col- 
league, and it certainly was not new to himself, now to learn that 
there were many, very many, among his constituents who differed 
from him radically upon questions of political principle and ques- 
tions of political policy. This petition was but one of many 
proofs which had come before the Senate, since he had been a 
member of it, to prove that fact. It had been his design upon all 
former occasions to treat such petitioners with every respect, 
and to give to their opinions and wishes every aid which princi- 
ple and duty would permit. The same design actuated him upon 
this occasion, and he must not, therefore, in anything he should 
say, be understood as indulging the language of complaint or 
censure because this respectable portion of his constituents had 
condemned, in advance, a measure which he had aided in bring- 
ing before the Senate, and the adoption of which he considered 
essential to the best interests of the country. On the contrary, 
he commended them for their free expressions of opinion upon 
this and all other great measures of national policy, and it was 
not to make a single remark in relation to anything embodied in 
the petition for which he had risen. It was, as he had before 
stated, to express his dissent from the remarks of his colleague, 
made upon the presentation of the petition. 

" His honorable colleague had assumed, in the broadest terms, 
that the present derangement of business and distresses in the 
country had arisen from the acts of this government. This, in 
his opinion, was a mistaken assumption. The immediate cause of 
the derangement and distresses was the present condition of the 
banks of the country; their inability to meet their obligations 



700 I^iFE AND Times of Silas Wright. 

and perform their chartered duties ; in short, their imiversal sus- 
pension of specie payments. Was there a member of this body, 
was there a person within the hearing of his voice, who would 
deny this proposition ? He could not suppose there was. He 
knew well, however, that there was a wide difference, and a great 
variety of opinion, about the causes which had produced the 
suspension by the banks. It was not now his intention to go 
into that discussion. He had, upon a former occasion, given to 
the Senate, briefly and partially, his views upon that subject, 
and others had given theirs. He was satisfied that the causes 
assigned upon all sides had had their influence upon that result, but 
in very unequal proportions, and that any acts of any department 
of this government were among the secondary of those causes. 
All this, however, was not very material to his present purpose, 
which was to compare the declarations of the banks and their 
friends, at the time of the suspension, with subsequent events 
and present representations. 

"What was the immediate cause of the suspension, as given 
by the banks and bankers, at the time it took place ? Not, as 
all will recollect, the ulterior inability of the banks to pay their 
debts. N"o; this was strenuously denied, and the banks declared 
as perfectly sound and solvent as they had ever been ; but it was 
said that we had overtraded, had imported beyond the proceeds 
of our exports, and had thus accumulated, in the hands of foreign- 
ers, a fearful amount of debt against our merchants ; that this 
foreign debt was making pressing and insupportable demands 
upon our banks for specie for exportation ; and that the banks 
were forced to suspend specie payments, to prevent an entire 
drain of the specie from the country, and give time for the crop 
of 1837 to be applied to the reduction of that foreign debt. A 
resumption was promised so soon as the foreign demand for 
specie should cease. 

" What results have time and the healthful action of a prudent 
business produced? How are foreign exchanges at this moment, 
and how have they been for about a month now last past ? Bills on 
England are actually beloio par in the principal commercial cities. 
They have been at and below this point for some weeks. Will 
it, then, be pretended that there is yet a foreign demand for 



Life aa'd Tuies of Silas ]Vi:i(;ii'r. 701 

specie? — that if the banks unclose their vaults, the specie will 
be exported and the country di-ained of it? No; tlie indications 
are strong and universal of a large iiitlii.v of specie, gi'owing out 
of the present state of the exchanges. Such was the inroniial inn 
he derived from the public press, and especially fi-oiii se\ei;il 
commercial papers opposed to liim in politics. Still, the banks 
had not resumed specie payments; and were they soon to resume? 
This was a question of the highest interest, of the most vital 
importance to tlie business and prosperity of the coiuitry. He 
w^as most happy to be able to say he had new hope upon tliis 
point. He had seen, within the last few days, that tlie banks in 
the city of New York had resolved to resume, and make the 
attempt to sustain themselves in the full and perfect discharge of 
all their corporate duties and obligations on and after the tenth 
day of May next. He had not a doubt as to the ability of those 
banks, with possibly the exception of two or three, wliicli were 
unusually involved, to sustain and carry out this just and praise- 
worthy resolve, if they could receive the countenance and co-ope- 
ration of their neighbors in the other princi[)al commercial towns; 
nay, he would go farther and say, if tliey were not warred upon 
by those neighboring institutions. 

"Still, at such a moment, when the first dawn of light begins 
to show itself in the east, we see the distinguished Senator 
from Massachusetts [Mr. Webster] rising in his place and calling 
for further agitation of the public mind; inviting petitions from 
the people against a settlement here of a question which must 
continue injuriously to influence the public interests and to agitate 
the public feeling until it is settled by Congress by positive legis- 
lation. They had seen panics here before. His lionorable col- 
league and himself had seen rolls of petitions upon former 
occasions as large as at that now upon the table. They had seen 
them from the same city, of which they and their State w^ere 
justly so proud. They had heard invitations given here for agi- 
tation, for getting up meetings, petitions and remonstrances, 
almost in the words which the honorable Senator had used in the 
morning. Who had forgotten tlie scenes of 1834 in this cham- 
ber? Who had forgotten the excitement which, from those 
scenes, was infused into the public mind in every part of the 



702 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

country during that memorable winter? Who had forgotten the 
deep and painful responsibility under which we all then acted ? 
Still, we were not then frightened from our sense of propriety or 
duty. Both himself and his colleague then stood firmly on in 
what they believed to be the path of principle and of duty, and 
neither could have forgotten what was the influence of the month 
of May upon that panic. It melted it away as it did the ice and 
snows of the winter, and all was seen to have been false and 
illusory — the phantom of excited minds, which, when reaijon 
returned, gave place to unexampled prosperity. 

" Did either the Senator from Massachusetts, or his colleague, 
wish to renew those scenes upon the present occasion ? Did they 
hope that confidence in affairs of credit and money was to be 
established by universal and continued agitation — by a panic? 
It was proposed to postpone the bill to which the petition related 
until the next session of Congress, thus preventing any action in 
reference to the currency, either of the treasury or of the countr}'', 
during the present session, and both the gentlemen had declared 
that the motion should receive their support. Did they believe 
that jt?ecM?iiary benefits to the country would result from carrying 
these deeply agitating questions to the polls of election ? If not, 
why invoke agitation now ? Why attempt to increase an excite- 
ment already rendered sufficiently deep and extensive by the 
depressed condition of our monetary affairs ? And, above all, 
why attempt to delay action for another year, and thus force an 
uncertainty upon the country, for that length of time, more inju- 
rious than almost any proposed action could be ? 

"The banks of New York deserved not only the thanks but 
the countenance and support, to every possible extent to which 
it could be given consistently with paramount national interests, 
of all men and all interests. They deserved the co-operation of 
all the other banking institutions of the country, and most espe- 
cially of those in the large commercial cities, in their earnest 
attempt to resume and sustain specie payments. This counte- 
nance and support he was sure his colleague and himself must 
feel the disposition to extend to them, as far as a conscientious 
discharge of their public duties would permit, and, as the first 
and most important step they could take, in his judgment, they 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 703 

should use their every effort to secure speedy, positive and final 
action by Congress upon the subject of the currency and the safe- 
keeping of the money of the nation, to secure the permanent 
settlement of this exciting question of finance, that credit and 
confidence might have facts and certainties to rest upon ; not a 
postponement of action, which would leave only hopes and fears 
dano-erous to credit and destructive to confidence. 

" He admitted that it was the duty of the banks in the city of 
New York to lead in the resumption of specie payments as they 
had led in the suspension. He admitted that their location, also, 
and the commanding business importance of that great city, made 
this duty upon those banks more strongly binding. But as they 
were most promptly followed by all the banks of the country in 
the suspension, so ought they to be followed with equal prompt- 
ness and unanimity in the resumption. Would they be so fol- 
lowed? Painful doubts seemed to hang around the answer to 
this important inquiry. He hoped, however, that they would 
discharge their duty to themselves, to their State and to their 
country, and time would show whether the other banks would 
come forward and sustain and cheer them on or would attempt 
an exterminating war upon them. 

" The most which Congress could do was to act promptly upon 
the great subject now before it, and thus settle the public mind 
as to the course of policy which the government was to pursue. 
Entertaining most deeply this conviction, he was rejoiced to hear 
it said here this morning, by the opponents of the bill, that there 
was the prospect of its final passage. He hoped their apprehen- 
sions were well founded. He believed that the very best interests 
of the country required that the bill should become a law. He 
believed that the highest and most essential interests of these 
respected constituents of his who had remonstrated against it 
would be best served by its speedy passage. He therefore 
entreated Senators to turn their minds to action here, not to agi- 
tation elsewhere; to the settlement of this unprofitable contro- 
versy, not to the influences which may be exerted through its 
further discussion before the people of the country." 



704 Life and Times of Silas Wihght. 

Mr. Webster and Mr. Tallmadge again addressed tlie 
Senate on this subject, to whose remarks Mr. Wright 
made this reply : 

" Mr. Weight said, but for the necessity of correcting an essen- 
tial error into which his colleague had fallen, in the reply he had 
thought proper to make to his former I'cmarks, he should not 
have occupied the time of the Senate further in the course of this 
debate. His colleague had considered it to be his duty, with 
what particular relevancy to any of the topics involved in the 
discussion he had not yet been able to discover, to allude to the 
subject of the distribution of portions of the public revenue to 
the States, and to the acts and opinions of the late President of 
the United States and of himself, and the friends Avho had acted 
with him politically in their own State. . He had spoken of their 
opinions upon the power of Congress over, and the policy of, 
these distributions, and had made them all out to have been, 
constitutionally and politically, friends of the system. This was 
the error. 

" It was true that, some years since, the republicans of his 
State became alarmed at the rapid strides which the doctrine of 
prosecuting works of internal improvement within the several 
States, not only at the expense, but under the authority, and by 
the agents, and as the property of tliis government, was making 
here. They also saw that a rapidly accumulating surplus revenue 
was giving to the doctrine dangerous strength and force, and that 
some means must be devised to avert a result so destructive to our 
institutions as the adoption of such a doctrine and the extension 
of such a policy would necessarily jDrove. They saw attempts 
made in Congress to reduce the revenue to the wants of the govern- 
ment without success ; and as the less dangerous of the two alter- 
natives, considering both as fearful evils, they did repeatedly, 
through their Governor, through committees of the Legislature, 
and, he believed, on one or more occasions, through expressions of 
the Legislature itself, give a preference to the plan of distribution 
over that of a direct expenditure of the money by this government 
upon works of internal improvement within the States. If the 
funds of this government were to be applied to the construction 
of roads and canals within the States, they preferred that the appli- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 705 

cation should be made by State authority, and that the works 
should be the property of the States, and under their jurisdiction, 
rather than that this government sliould I'orce its authority and 
its jurisdiction, and extend its property, its ])()\ver and its patron- 
age within the limits of those sovereignties for :iiiy suc.li pur- 
pose. They did not, however, attempt to assume or express the 
opinion that Congress possessed the constitutiounl power to make 
the distribution to the States without an amendment of the Con- 
stitution for that purpose. In every message from a Governor, 
in every report from a committee, even including the report made 
by his colleague to which he had referred, and in every legisla- 
tive resolution, the question of constitutional power in Congress 
to make the distribution to the States would be found to have 
been expressly reserved, as he verily believed. lie spoke upon 
this point with great confidence, because it had repeatedly been 
his duty to examine those proceedings of his State since he had 
been a member of the Senate. Indeed, he believed he had now 
in the drawer of his desk a printed copy of every document 
which would be found upon the journals and files of their Legis- 
lature. He well recollected that the first mention made of this 
subject was to be found in one of the messages of Governor 
Clinton, and that he reserved the constitutional question in 
express terms. He did not recollect that but one other Governor 
(Governor Throop) had ever brought the subject to the attention 
of the Legislature, and he knew he had followed in this respect 
the example of Governor Clinton. It was during his administra- 
tion that his colleague made the report, as chairman of the Canal 
Committee of the Senate, to which he alludes, and he was sure, 
when that question was carefully guarded in all the other docu- 
ments, he could not have committed himself upon it in his report. 
In any event, as his colleague had done him the honor to refer to 
his opinions, and to say that they and all their political friends in 
the State were then agreed as to the policy, he could assure him 
and the Senate that he had never himself entertained or expressed 
but one opinion upon the point, and that opinion was that, with- 
out an amendment of the Constitution, Congress could not make 
the distribution proposed. That opinion had governed all his 
actions in Congress upon questions of such distribution, and con- 
45 



706 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

trolled his vote against the deposit bill of 1836 in the form in 
which it passed the Senate, as, in that form, he considered it a 
distribution bill, 

"As to the expressions and communications of the late Presi- 
dent of the United States, to which his colleague had so confi- 
dently alluded, he had only to say, if that distinguished statesman 
had ever anywhere contended for the power of Congress to dis- 
tribute the surjjlus revenue among the. States, without an amend- 
ment of the Constitution — had ever admitted that power or had 
ever expressed an opinion that it did exist — he had not seen the 
document ; and he was confident a review of his communications 
to Congress would satisfy his colleague that he had mistaken 
their purport and meaning. 

"As he was up, he would reply to one single other remark of 
his colleague, and he begged him to believe that he made the 
reply without any personal ill-feeling. No such feeling had 
existed in his mind toward his colleague, and he earnestly hoped 
no occasion would ever be given for the existence of such 
a feeling. His colleague had remarked, speaking of his own 
political course, that he had been all his life a straightforward 
man, and that he could not now turn a right angle, or an 
acute angle, at the command of political leaders. He must have 
a curve, a railroad turn — or, as the boys at school sometimes 
called it, a sweep of sixty — to turn in. He, Mr. W., did not 
doubt that his colleague had intended to be a straightforward 
man in his political course, and he thought it likely he had con- 
vinced himself that he had been so. He, too, had intended to 
be a straightforward politician, to govern himself by certain 
fixed principles, and to carry them out in all his actions ; but he 
dare not say for himself what his collea<,ue claimed, that he had 
been straight upon all occasions. One of them must have turned 
the angle or the curve, as they were very recently together, pur- 
suing the same course, and entertaining the same opinions, and 
now they seemed to him to be very nearly opposites in ojiinion 
and action. Under these circumstances, he much preferred to 
leave to their common constituents the decision of the question, 
which had turned and which had kept ' straightforward.' 

" He thought he had kept straightforward ; but he was aware 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 707 

that a man lost, when intending to pursue a stvaiglit line, would 
almost invariably describe a circle. It was evident tliut either 
himself or his honorable colleague were now, and had been for 
some months past, lost, and that one of them had got just about 
half round the circle; and, so far as he was conceriu'd, their con- 
stituents, and not themselves, should settle the question which 
was the lost politician. 

"In justice to liinisclf, Iiowever, he must claim that lie had 
some marks, some guide-posts, to direct Ids way and determine 
his course. He came into this body the friend of tlie bite admin- 
istration, of its principles and of its measures. He was selected, 
by those who sent him here, because such were known to 
be his feelings and opinions. Finding no cause to (ihange 
either, he had remained the friend and supporter of that admin- 
istration during its continuance, and during the whole of the 
period he found the talented and distinguished body of opposi- 
tion Senators upon his right uniformly opposed to him. A 
chancfe of administration came, and he contributed his humble 
efforts to place at its head the present President. He liad long 
known that individual, and they had long been personal and 
political friends. He, therefore, became a supporter of his 
administration, and still remained so. He was daily told by the 
opposition Senators that the present administration was but 
carrying out the principles and measures of the last, and elabo- 
rate speeches had been recently made, and were now daily 
making, to prove, not only to the Senate, but to the country, 
that this was the fact. Could he, then, be inconsistent in sup- 
portimr this, as he had done the last, administration ? But, 
again, he found the same distinguished Senators who had, during 
the whole eight years, led the opposition in the political warfare 
ao-ainst the late administration, equally leaders in opposition to 
this. They occupy the same seats and use precisely the same 
weapons in the fight. Upon all questions, they met him, as for- 
merly, in open and powerful opposition. If, then, he had been 
lost and traveling the circle, so, necessarily, must they have been 
iipon the whirl, too, for tlie distance between them and himself 
remained precisely the same. They were exactly opposite at the 
start, and they were exactly opposite now ; nor had there been 



708 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

any armistice within which they could have met and crossed 
each other. And, again, he now found himself surrounded by, 
and acting with, almost all (he was sorry he could not say all) of 
those who had ever been political friends. They too, therefore, 
had been lost if he had been, and yet continued to pursue the 
course with him, whether direct or circular. These considera- 
tions would certainly not only palliate his error, if he was in 
error, but would furnish him some apology for being somewhat 
confident that his was not the circular course. 

" A single word as to a remark of the honorable Senator from 
Massachusetts, and he had done. That Senator had said that, in 
1834, he had no confidence in the system of State bank deposits, 
but that T had, and that time has shown that his opinions upon 
that subject were then right and that mine were wrong. I had 
then confidence in that system, and I expressed it freely, fully 
and honestly. The trial of the system was made, and in less 
than four years, and that too during a period of the aaost abun- 
dant plenty and prosperity, it failed. This experience destroyed 
my confidence, and convinced me that the system was bad both 
for the public and the banks. I cannot, by volition, restore that 
confidence. I cannot believe that to be good, and safe, and 
beneficial, wdiich has been proved, before my own eyes, to be 
bad, and dangerous, and injurious. Has this experience changed 
the former opinions of the Senator ? No. He tells us this day 
that he has no confidence in the State bank deposit system. Still, 
this is the system which my honorable colleague urges upon us, 
and desires us to force upon the country, against the recent and 
positive experience of every business man in it. I, for one, can- 
not bring myself to such a course of action." 

The remonstrance, after short remarks from Mr. Tall- 
madge, was laid on the table and ordered to be printed. 



Life and Times of Silas Wrioht. 709 



Chapter LXX. 

ISSUING TREASURY NOTES. 

An act was passed at the called session of 1837, author- 
izing the issue of ten millions of dollars in treasury 
notes. These being issued, and the treasury needing 
further funds, another bill was reported, authorizing 
the issue of others in place of those redeemed, not to 
exceed the amount of the former issue. This bill passed 
the House, on the sixteenth of May, by lOG to 99, and, 
on coming to the Senate, became the subject of discus- 
sion, on the 18th of May, 1838, in which Mr. Wright, 
being in charge of the measure, took a leading part in 
its defense. 

" Mr. Wright observed that he should endeavor, so far as was 
in his power, to discharge what was his duty in regard to this 
bill, without protracting debate. 

" Still, some portion of the remarks of the Senator from Massa- 
chusetts seemed entitled to some attention. One was his com- 
mendation of the sound and valuable principle of paying the 
public creditor in what was equivalent to specie ; and he was 
gratified to find that the Senator would go with him in favor of 
the principle, that was not less valuable, that of preserving the 
faith of the government. The report of his, Mr. W., to which 
the Senator alluded, was an argument to show that it was highly 
improper for this government to make tender in payment of its 
debts of the paper of local corporations ; and he confessed that 
to some extent that argument might be api^lied to paper issued 
upon the authority, faith and credit of the government itself. 
He was among that class who, if it were not necessary for the 
operations of the treasury itself, would not adopt even that expe- 
dient. So much for that. Then the gentleman would ask him, 
why did he urge this bill ? He answered, because he believed 



710 Life and Times ob Silas Wright. 

the necessity existed for it. We are told by the head of the 
Treasury deiDartment that even in means of this character the 
treasury is so limiicd that it is in danger from day to day of 
being compelled to turn its creditors from the door. The public 
funds of other descriptions are postponed, and placed beyond the 
reach of the treasury, by law, and the want of authority to 
reissue the treasury notes puts it out of the power of the Secre- 
tary to offer payment even in this description of funds. 

" The gentleman had contended that there was no eminent 
necessity for passing this bill. Would the gentleman tell him 
why there was not V He says the Senate, so far as it is concerned, 
has given authority to sell the bonds of the Bank of the United 
States. He, Mr. W., remembered that the only voice raised 
against that measure was that of the Senator himself, on the 
ground that we could not sell these bonds upon the terms pre- 
scribed in this country, and that there was not time to send them 
abroad for sale. He, Mr. W., felt the force of that suggestion, 
and submitted to the Senator that it would be necessary for Con- 
gress to provide sufficient means for the wants of the government, 
by authorizing an issue of treasury notes, or by a loan, and added 
that, if the bonds did sell, it would supersede the issue of treasury 
notes to the amount they might sell for. 

" We have been told that the bill before us is not broad enough 
to accomplish its object. He, Mr. W., did not apprehend any 
difficulty on that score. But he spoke with great distrust of his 
own judgment, as to constructiou of law, when the distinguished 
authority of the Senator was against him. He found, however, 
the bill to read : 

" ' Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepi'esentatices of the United 
States of Amenca, in Congress assembled. That the Secretary of the Treasury, 
with the approbation of the President of the United States, is hereby 
authorized to cause treasury notes to be issued, according to the provisions 
contained in, and subject to all the conditions, limitations and restrictions 
of an act entitled "An act to authorize the issuing of treasury notes," 
approved the twelfth day of October last, in place of such notes as have 
been or may be issued under the authority of the act aforesaid, and which 
have been or may hereafter be paid into the treasury and canceled.' 

" Now, as far as his comprehension extended, the clause just 
read brings the whole of the act of the extra session forward, 



Life and Tutes of Silas Wriout. 711 

and makes it applicable to this bill. Would it be pretended that 
under this law a note could be issued bearing more than six per 
, cent interest ? 

"Mr. Webster — No. 

"Mr. Wright — Would it be pretended that they could issue 
more than ten iiiillions ? 

"Mr. Webster — Yes. 

" [Mr. Wkight here read from the bill, to show that notes can 
only be issued in place of those that came in.] 

"Again, the notes issued under the authority of this law are 
made receivable in payment of all dues to the government. 
Was there any doubt of this ? 

"Mr. Webster — No. 

" Mr. Wright — Then it appears that, with one exception, all 
the substantive provisions of the law of the extra session are 
made applicable to this, except the penal enactments. As a 
lawyer, he should as confidently say that these enactments were 
brought forward as the others. But this was not material. I 
find, said he, that, as far as the action of the Senate is concerned, 
the case is already provided for independently, by a bill just 
passed to punish the counterfeiting of these notes, and by a 
general law of Congress in relation to the punishment of crimes, 
passed in 1825, enumerating the counterfeiting of treasury notes 
as one of the crimes to be punished. That law was yet in force. 
Again, at the present session the Judiciary Committee have pro- 
vided for a supposed casus omissus found in both laws, which 
was that there was no provision made to punish persons who 
should have in their possession counterfeit treasury notes with 
intent to pass them. The Senate had passed this bill and sent it 
to the other House, so that the criminal provisions, as far as this 
body is concerned, are complete, without reference to this bill or 
the law of October, 

"But the Senator suggests that there are no statements, and 
that therefore we do not know that the treasury needs this sup- 
ply. Could this be said after what had passed here within the 
last few days? And yet perhaps this body had been made to 
know less upon the subject than it ought, as most of the commu- 
nications had been transmitted to the House. But his memory 



712 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

told him that the wants of the treasury were so imperious as to 
require a special communication from the President of the United 
States; that that communication was made to both Houses, and 
was accompanied by one from the Secretary of the Treasury; 
that that message recommended this mode of providing for the 
exigency, and it seemed to him emphatically to be the correct 
one. Did any member of that body believe that the treasury 
was not in immediate want? His information, as late as yester- 
day morning, was that there were but |50,000 of treasury notes 
authorized by the act of October that remained to be issued; and 
that there were but some $200,000 in the treasury scattered over 
the whole country. Could there be any doubt, then, as to the 
immediate and pressing necessity for passing this bill? Why, 
asked Mr. W., are we brought to this state of things? The Sen- 
ator told us that, after passing the law of October, it was under- 
stood that one of this character would not be called for again. 
But the Senator did not recollect the change that was given to 
that act in the House of Representatives. It passed this House 
without any provision as to a reissue of the notes, but it came 
back from the House with an interdiction on such reissue; and 
he, Mr. W., remembered well, in moving for a concurrence with 
this amendment, that he said that the bill thus amended would 
answer till the next session of Congress, when further provision 
could be made if necessary. By making these notes receivable 
for the dues of the government nearly six of the ten millions had 
been redeemed, and all our revenue coining in comes in that j^aper. 
The revenue is as large as was anticipated, but there was no 
money coming in; and, though they had issued $10,000,000 of 
paper within $50,000, they were now but $4,000,000 in debt, 
the balance of the notes having been already redeemed and can- 
celed. It was not by this bill that they were incurring one dol- 
lar more of debt than was authorized by the act of October last. 
This bill did not authorize the reissue of a single note which has 
not been canceled under that act. He would make a single 
remark more, which he hoped would be the last. We have been 
told of the depreciated character of this paper. He believed that 
some of the prices current had put it below bank paper, though 
that was at one single point of the Union only, New York; but it 



Life and TniEs of Silas Wright. 713 

was now quoted there and at Philadelphia three or four per cent 
higher than that paper (United States Bank notes) which is 
held in such high estimation by the gentleman and his friends. 
His information told him that treasury notes were higher at 
the South than any bank paper. In Philadelphia it was also 
higher, though in New York it might be quoted a trifle lower. 
That, however, was not the point. The question was, what were 
they to do? We cannot, by our Hat here, place money in tlie 
treasury at a moment's warning. Then, can we do anything lietU'r 
than to give to the creditors of the government the best pa[)er 
in our power — that issued upon the faith and credit of the 
government itself? The limitation proposed by the Senator's 
amendment would not answer. Who could tell how soon it 
would come back again ; and how long would 12,000,000 last, 
when in the single port of Xew York it comes in at the rate of 
^300,000 per week? How long would it be before the Secretary 
of the Treasury would be compelled to come before Congress 
witli another statement showing a deficiency of means ? What 
danger could there be in issuing this amount ? Would it run the 
government in debt a dollar beyond the amount authorized by 
the act of October last ? Not one dollar." 

Mr. Wright subsequently made the following remarks : 

"Mr. Wright observed that, holding as he did the particular 
position in reference to this bill, he was yet bound, out of respect 
to the body, and his anxiety for a speedy decision, to deny him- 
self the privilege of replying to the many misrepresentations of 
the gentlemen on the other side. He had yet hopes that the 
question would be taken this evening, and in that hoj^e he would 
refrain from consuming the time of the Senate by answering 
either of the gentlemen who had spoken against the bill. It was 
not necessary to take uj) the time of the Senate by answering all 
the misrepresentations which had been made. Some of them 
were well understood, and would be easily corrected. For 
instance, we have been told, said he, that ten millions of debt 
were contracted by the bill of the extra session, and that ten 
millions more were asked for now. Now, every gentleman knew 
that ten millions could not be exceeded, and that not one dollar 



714 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

of treasury notes could be issued, under this bill, except to supply 
the place of a note that had been redeemed and canceled. With 
reference to the amendment proposing to reduce the issue of trea- 
sury notes to two millions, he would observe that there were the 
expenditures under the general appropriation and navy bills to be 
provided for; and, in addition to that, a bill to meet the expense of 
the Florida war must soon be expected here, — and from informa- 
tion tliey had, at least two millions had been expended on that 
object alone, and that drafts to a large amount for that service 
were waiting here for the necessary appropriation to pay them. 
Could it, then, be expected that two millions would be enough ?" 

At the close of the debate the bill was passed by ayes 
27 to nays 13, and became a law on the 21st of May, 1838. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 715 



Chapter LXXI. 

RESTRAINING THE BANKS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 
FROM ISSUING SMALL BILLS. 

It was a subject that Mr. Wright had deeply at heart, 
to prevent the issue of small bills. Most of his political 
party participated in that feeling. Congress having full 
power over this subject in tlie District of Columbia, a 
bill restraining the issue of such bills was reported, and 
fully discussed on both sides. It was ordered to be 
engrossed for a third reading by a vote of 27 to 14. Mr. 
Wright participated in this debate, and said : 

"Mr. Weight rose and inquired of the Vice-President if tlie 
amendment otfered by the Senator from Illinois [Mr. Young] had 
been adopted. [The answer was, that it had been adopted by 
the unanimous consent of the Senate.] He then said he had 
hoped not to be compelled again to trouble the Senate with any 
remarks upon this bill ; but the charges against the committee 
which had reported it to tlie Senate were such and so various 
that it seemed to be his duty again to notice them. On the last 
day of the session of the Senate they had proceeded from various 
quarters, and then partially from tlie Senator from Kentucky 
[Mr. Clay]. He was himself a member of that committee (the 
Committee on Finance), and had been honored by the Senate 
with a conspicuous place upon it. He had, upon that day, 
repelled some of those charges; but they now came, with addi- 
tions and aggravations, from the honorable Senator [Mr. Clay], 
and he must, therefore, again repel them. 

" He would do this by recounting, as briefly as possible, the 
charges which had been made, and the facts and historv of the 
bill and its pi'Ogress. The Senate, upon an early day of the 
present session, he thought the eleventh December, by an express 
resolution, instructed the Committee on Finance to consider the 



716 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

subject of the currency in this District, and to report such bills 
as, in their judgment, should be required for the improvement 
thereof. The resolution reached the committee on the day after 
its passage. There were then but tln-ee members of the commit- 
tee in town, the member from Missouri [Mr. Benton], from New 
Hampshire [Mr. Hubbard] and himself. The members from 
Massachusetts [Mr. Webster] and from Louisiana [Mr. Nicholas] 
had not then reached the city. In the judgment of the members 
of the committee present, the suppression of the small, individual 
and worthless notes which were circulating as money in the Dis- 
trict, and especially in this city, was one indispensable prerequisite 
to the improvement of the currency. In this they supposed they 
were supported by the already expressed judgment of the Senate, 
as a bill to accomplish this object had passed, at the session of 
the Senate of September and October last, without a dissenting 
vote. The three members of the committee, therefore, acted 
upon the order of the Senate, and promptly reported that bill, 
in the words, letters and figures in which it had passed the 
Senate at its last session. 

" They were not a little surprised, uj)on the very appearance 
of the bill in the chamber, to find themselves sharply reproved 
by the honorable Senator [Mr. Clay], and the propriety strongly 
questioned of so few members of a committee of the body, in the 
absence of their colleagues, assuming to report bills of so high 
importance ; bills touching the great and interesting subject of 
the currency of the country. An explanation was then made, 
and the Senator requested to raise the question he had suggested, 
that the sense of the Senate might be taken upon it. This was not 
done, and the matter rested until the bill came up for considera- 
tion in the Committee of the Whole of the body, on Friday last. 

" Then new charges were preferred against the committee. 
They had gone out of their way to introduce this bill. They 
had encroached upon the province of another important commit- 
tee of the body, that on the District of Columbia. These charges 
were met ; the order of the Senate instructing the Committee on 
Finance to take up the subject was produced, and the fact that 
the bill was an exact copy of one which had passed the Senate 
at its last session, in October, was again stated. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 717 

"The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay], however, then over- 
stepped these trifling charges, and aniionnced to the Senate and 
the audience tliat tlie hill was a ' ])icavune' bill, a triflintx atl'air, 
and that the committee ought to be ashamed to have introduced 
such a measure before the Senate. Mr. W. said he felt mortiticd 
and humiliated at a declaration of this strong character coming 
from so distinguished a source; from a Senator whose legislative 
experience was superior to that of almost any individual in the 
country; whose standing has long been such as to give weight 
to his declarations here or elsewhere, and whose sense of justice 
ougVit to moderate those declarations upon all occasions, and 
most especially when made upon this floor. He could not fail 
to see the wide discrepancy in the complaints against the com- 
mittee, coming from the same source, upon the two occasions. 
In the first instance, it was an important bill, touching the great 
and delicate question of the currency of the country, and ought 
not to have been reported without a full committee ; and in the 
second, it was a sixpenny business, of which a committee of the 
Senate ought to be ashamed. Yet, so direct were the censures, 
and such the weight of their authority, that silence was imposed 
upon him and his colleagues, and he felt bound to wait until the 
sense of the Senate should be expressed upon the measure, before 
he entirely surrendered himself to self-condemnation. At the 
same time it was his duty to confess that, censured as the com- 
mittee were, and from such authority, and trifling and sixpenny 
in character as the measure was pronounced in so high a quarter, 
it was some consolation to his feelings to see the interest and the 
spirit it elicited from the opposition; to see that, humble and 
shameful as was the bill, it opened the strongest batteries from the 
opposing benches, and drew forth their hottest and heaviest fire. 

" The decisive vote at length came, and what were the feelings 
of relief on the part of those humble members of the Committee 
on Finance, who had thus ventured to give back to the Senate a 
measure of its own, when they found not one solitary vote against 
it? Would it be doubted that their apprehension of shame was 
at an end, and they were compelled to conclude that, all the high 
complaints notwithstanding, they had presented to the body a 
salutary and acceptable bill ? 



718 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

" Here he supposed all debate as to this much-abused measure 
would have terminated; but the experience of the morning had 
shown his mistake. The honorable Senator [Mr. Clay] had again 
come to the assault, not upon the bill, but upon the committee, 
and had accused them of a culpable neglect of the more important 
business before them, that they might hasten on measures of 
oppression upon this poor and helpless District. He had demanded 
why the important bills of the session were not brought forward, 
instead of this trifling measure. 

" The honorable Senator had, in this instance also, run himself 
into an inconsistency of complaint which demanded correction. 
His first charge was that the committee were arrogating powers 
unsafe to legislation, by reporting important bills while their 
number was not full. In addition to the public explanation 
made in answer to that charge, a private one was made to the 
Senator himself, and he was assured that the great public mea- 
sures of the session would not be pressed upon the attention of 
the committee until its members should have arrived in town 
and have an opportunity to attend its meetings. He called upon 
the Senator to do him the justice to recollect that this assurance 
was given to him in person and in his seat in the Senate. 

"What, then, was the condition of the committee in this 
respect at this moment? The member from Louisiana had 
arrived since the last regular meeting of the committee, but the 
member from Massachusetts — the great leader of that party 
whose interests the honorable Senator [Mr. Clay] upon all occa- 
sions so ably and eloquently espoused — had not yet reached the 
city. Were the members of the committee, then, who Avere pres- 
ent, and especially those who had been present from the hour 
of the appointment of the committee, to expect this censure for 
not having proceeded further in the absence of this distinguished 
colleague ? Were they to have entertained this expectation, 
after the complaints which had been heaped upon them for hav- 
ing simply reported a ' picayune ' bill during the absence of that 
member of the committee ? Was he to have expected complaints 
of this character from the very individual to whom he had given 
assui'ances that the important measures of the session should not 
be hastened in the committee until the arrival of its absent mem- 



Life and Times of Silas WiUGiir. 7x9 

bers? All these were questions which necessarily suo-o-ested 
themselves in consequence of the course which the hononiltlc 
Senator had felt it to be his duty to i)iirsiic upon the passage of 
the bill under discussion. They were })ropounded to liimself, to 
the Senate and to the country ; and he, as a member of that com- 
mittee against which this singular course of complaint had bccu 
pursued, was willing to leave the answers to that sense of justice 
which governs the decisions of every upright man, lie would 
ask, however, and he would even make the appeal to the Senator 
himself, whether it was just, whether it was fair, to put the com- 
mittee in the hopeless dilemma in which his complaints had 
placed them ? If they did act, to complain of them for transact- 
ing important business in the absence of some of their number; 
if they did not act, to complain of them for neglecting the 
important business of the session '? To chai-acterize the same 
bill, at one moment as an important measure touching the cur- 
rency of the country, and the next moment as a sixpenny aifair, 
*a picayune bill,' of which the committee should be ashamed? 
In short, whether the committee advanced, stood still or receded, 
to make their course equally the subject of such high censures ? 
[Mr. Clay, in reply, intimated that Mr. Wkight had rested 
for days upon remarks from him which he had chosen to consider 
personal, although they were not so intended, and had now come 
forward to reply to them. He also urged objections to the bill 
and to the course of the committee in reporting it; because, he 
said, it was evident that, while the terms of the bill limited its 
action to the District of Columbia, it was intended that it should 
have a much broader influence, and should discourage the circuhi- 
tion of the description of currency upon which it acted in the sur- 
rounding country.] Mr. Wright rejoined. He said the Senator 
had entirely misconceived him if he had supposed he viewed 
any of his remarks of Friday as personal to himself, or intended 
at this time to reply to them as such. He had made the reference 
to those remarks now simply as a part of the history of the 
measure before the Senate and of its treatment by the honorable 
Senator. In that sense, and in that sense alone, had he referred 
to those remarks. 

" The Senator now proceeds with a new objection to the bill. 



720 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

and a new complaint against the committee. It is that the bill is 
intended to exert an influence and power not appiireht upon its 
face; that while it purports to act upon the circulation of small 
notes in this District only, the intention is palpable that it should 
act upon and discourage the circulation of that same description 
of notes in the adjacent States. To these complaints he had 
merely to say that the provisions of the bill were plain and 
simple; that they were limited, in explicit terms, to this District, 
and that, if it became a law, its whole legal and binding force 
would be in this District, and nowhere else. If, then, there 
existed any intention on the part of the committee, or any mem- 
bers of it, that it should have the broad operation ascribed by 
the Senator, that intention can only be made effective through 
the example of the legislation and the moral influence of the 
measure. So far as influences of this sort were to be exerted by 
the passage of the bill, however objectionable they might be to 
the honorable Senator, they were in no sense objectionable to 
himself. He would rejoice if the example of the legislation 
should be followed by every State Legislature in the whole Union. 
He should increase vastly his estimate of the importance of the 
measure and of its public utility, if he could persuade himself 
that its moral influence would banish from circulation, through- 
out the United States, every note such as it proposed to suppress 
in the District of Columbia." 



Life and Times of Silas WiitoiiT. 721 



Chapter LXXII. 

KEPORT ON THE CURRENCY OJb' THE GOVERNMENT. 

The currency to be used by the government, after the 
banks refused to redeem their notes in specie, in 1837, 
became the all-absorbing subject among the people and 
in Congress. On the 2d of May, 1838, Mr. Clay, of Ken- 
tucky, moved a joint resolution on the subject of the 
receipts and disbursements of the treasury, which, on 
motion of Mr. Wright, was referred, after a stirring 
debate, to the Committee on Finance by a vote of 28 to 
19. On the sixteenth of May, Mr. Wright made the 
following report : 

" The Committee on Finance, to which was committed, on the 
second instant, the joint resohition ' relating to the public revenue 
and dues to the government,' in the following words: 

' ' ' Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of tlie United States 
of America, in Congress cmembled. That no discrimin.ition shall be made as 
to the currency or medium of payment in the several branches of the pub- 
lic revenue, or in debts or dues to the government ; and that, uutil other- 
wise ordered by Congress, the notes of sound bauks, which are payable 
and paid on demand in the legal currency of the United States, under suit- 
able restrictions, to be forthwith prescribed and promulgated by the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, shall be received in payment of the revenue and of debts 
and dues to the government, and shall be subsequently disbursed, in a course 
of public expenditure, to all public creditors Avho are willing to receive 
them,' 

respectfully submit the following report : 

" The resolution had three distinct objects : first, to prohibit 
any discrimination in ' the currency or medium of payment ' in 
which all public dues shall be collected and received; second, to 
establish, by the force of law, that ' currency or medium of pay- 
ment ' to be ' the notes of sound banks, which are payable and paid 
on demand in the legal currency of the United States ;' third, to 
46 



722 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

compel the disbursement of those bank-notes ' to all public credi- 
tors who are willing to receive them.' The various parts of it, 
therefore, relating to these several objects, will be considered in 
the order they hold in the resolution. 

" The first clause, prohibiting discrimination in the currency or 
medium of payment for the public dues, in these words: 

" ' That no discrimination shall be made as to the currency or medium of 
payment in the several branches of the public revenue, or in debts or dues 
to the government.' 

" In so far as any public interest may be supposed to be involved 
in the action of the Senate upon this branch of the resolution, it 
would seem to the committee to be sufficient to say that this body 
has already adopted, and sent to the House of Representatives, 
as a part of a law, a provision supposed to have the same gereral 
object, though not in the form here presented. The journal of 
the Senate shows that, on the twenty-fourth day of March last, 
a bill entitled 'An act to impose additional duties, as depositaries, 
upon certain public officers, to appoint receivers-general of public 
money, and to regulate the safe-keeping, transfer and disburse- 
ment of the public moneys of the United States,' being under 
consideration, an amendment, to stand as the twenty-third section 
of that bill, was offered in the words following, viz. : 

" ' Sec. 23. ATid be it further emoted, That it shall not be lawful for the 
Secretary of the Treasury to make, or to continue in force, any general 
order which shall create any difference between the different branches of 
revenue, as to the funds or medium of payment, in which debts or dues 
accruing to the United States may be paid.' 

" The same journal shows that this amendment, as here given, 
■was, on the same day, adopted by the Senate, by a very strong 
vote, was thus made a part of the bill to which it was proposed 
as an amendment, and that the bill, including this amendment as 
its twenty-third section, finally passed the Senate on the twenty- 
sixth day of March last, and was sent to the House of Repre- 
sentatives, with a request that that House would concur therein. 

" That these provisions are similar in the influence proposed to 
be exerted upon the currency of the public treasury, in the object 
proposed to be accomplished, will not be questioned ; and that a 
large majority of the Senate are favorable to the principle 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 723 

embraced in both is proved by the references to the Senate joui- 
nal which have just been made. With this evidence before them, 
the committee would not consider it proper in them, were they 
otherwise disposed to do so, to oflPer arguments against this 
strongly expressed opinion of the body ; but, when the pi-inciplc 
has been adopted, when it has been put in form, and made a part 
of a law, and when the Senate has, in this manner, done all it 
can do, without the action of the other legislative branches of the 
government, to make it a part of the law of the land, they would 
not feel excusable in omitting to bring this fact to its notice, nor 
can they believe that doing so will be construed into a disposi- 
tion to resist its ascertained sense and feeling. 

"The necessity for this legislation has been referred, in the 
debates in the Senate, and elsewhere, to the existence of the 
treasury order of the 11th of July, 1836, making a discrimina- 
tion between the currency or medium of payment to be received 
for the public lands and that to be received in other branches of 
the public revenue, and for other dues to the government. This 
order is believed by the committee to have been the first and 
only discrimination, by the order of the Treasury department, 
made either permanent or general, as to the currency or medium 
of payment receivable between the different branches of the 
public revenue; and hence, no doubt, the order has engrossed 
attention, and its repeal has been considered the sole object and 
piirpose of the provision under consideration. 

"As, hoAvever, the reference calls upon the committee for a 
careful examination of the laws in any way affecting the currency 
of the public treasury, and any medium of payment, made receiv- 
able by law, in any branch of the public revenue, and as the 
legislation in relation to the public lands is found to contain 
various and important provisions relative to the media of pay- 
ment in this branch of the revenue, they have considered it pro- 
per to review those laws under this head, and see how far any of 
their provisions may be material to this part of the inquiry. 

" The first general law to regulate the sale of the public lands, 
which has met the notice of the committee, is an act passed on 
the 18th day of May, 1796, entitled 'An act providing for the 
sale of the lands of the United States in the territory north-west 



724 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

of the River Ohio, and above the mouth of the Kentucky river.' 
This act fixed the price of the public lands at two dollars per acre, 
but did not specify the currency or medium of payment in which 
purchases were to be made. The law of 1789, therefote, which 
required all payments derivable from the customs to be made in 
gold and silver coin, and the tenth section of the charter of the 
old Bank of the United States, passed in 1791, which declared 
that the bills or notes of the corporation, payable on demand in 
gold and silver coin, should be receivable in all payments to the 
United States, must, as the committee suppose, have been held 
to prescribe the currency or medium of payment for the public 
domain, as well as other public dues, 

"On the 3d March, 1797, another act was passed, entitled 'An 
act to authorize the receipt of evidences of the public debt in 
payment for the lands of the United States.' This act provided 
'that the evidences of the public debt of the United States 
should be receivable in payment for any of the lands which 
might be sold in conformity to the act entitled "An act providing 
for the sale of the lands of the United States in the territory 
north-west of the Ohio river, and above the mouth of the Ken- 
tucky river," ' being the act of 1796, last above referred to. Here, 
then, evidences of the public debt were added to gold and silver 
coin, and the bills and notes of the Bank of the United States, 
payable on demand in gold and silver coin, as the currency or 
media in which payment might be made for the public lands. 

" The next act which seems to be material to this point, was 
passed on the 10th day of May, 1800, and was entitled 'An act 
to amend the act entitled "An act providing for the sale of the 
lands of the United States in the territory north-west of the 
Ohio, and above the mouth of Kentucky river." ' This act pro- 
vided for the establishment of land offices within the land dis- 
tricts ; for the appointment of registers of the land offices and 
of receivers of public money for lands ; for the sale of the lands 
within the land districts, both at public and private sale, and in 
sections and half sections ; and in many other respects established 
what is the present land system of the United States. The 
first clause of the fifth section of this act is in the following 
words : 



Life and Times of Silas Wuioiit. 7;>5 

" 'Sec. 5. And he it further enacted, Thai no lands sliall he sold Iiy virtue 
of this act, at either public or private sale, for less tiian two dolhirs per acre, 
and payment may be made for the same, by all pnrcdiasers, either in si)ecie, 
or in evidences of the public debt of the United States, at the rates pre- 
scribed by the act entitled "An act to authorize the receipt of evidences of 
the public debt in payment for the lands of the United States." ' 

"Here is a new enumeration of the currency or iiicditim in 
which payments were to be made for tlie public lands, and which 
does not include the bills or notes of banks of any description. 
It is confined to 'specie'' or 'evidences of the public debt of the 
United States.'' If, therefore, any other medium of payment was 
received while this continued to be the law of tlie case, it must 
have been so received, as the committee suppose, upon the respon- 
sibility, and at the risk, of the officer receiving the payment, and 
not because it Avas sanctioned by the law. 

"On the 18th of April, 1806, an act was passed entitled 'An 
act to repeal so much of any act or acts as authorize the receipt 
of evidences of the public debt in payment for lands of the 
United States, and for other purposes relative to the public debt.' 
The first clause of the first section of this act is in the words 
following : 

" ' Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the 
United States of America, in Congress assembled, Tliat so much of any act or 
acts as authorize the receipt of evidences of the public debt, in payment 
for the lauds of the United States, shall, from and after the thirtieth day of 
April, one thousand eight hundred and six, be repealed.' 

" This section proceeds with two provisos, saving the rights of 
persons who had purchased lauds, with the right to make the 
payments therefor in evidences of the public debt, prior to the 
passage of the act, and holding out inducements to those indebted 
for lands to make the payments in advance, and in money, but 
in no way affecting the repeal above quoted. After the 30th 
day of April, 1806, therefore, with the exception as to purchases 
which had been previously made, evidences of the public debt 
of the United States were not a medium in which payments for 
public lands could be made, but the law of 1800, above referred 
to, Avith this modification, continued to be the law regulating 
these payments. If, then, the committee have been correct in 
their construction of that law, and its influence upon the cur- 



726 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

rency or medium of payment for the public lands, this modifica- 
tion reduced that currency or medium to ' specie ' only. 

" No further change is found to have been made in the laws, 
in this respect, until the year 1812. On the thirtieth day of June, 
of that year, a law was passed, entitled 'An act to authorize the 
issuing of treasury notes.' The first clause of the sixth section 
of that act is in the following words : 

" ' Sec. 6. Andbe itfurtlier enacted. That the said treasury notes, wherever 
made payable, shall be everywhere received in payment of all duties and 
taxes laid by the authority of the United States, and of all public lands sold 
by the said authority.' 

" This law added a new medium of payment for the public 
lands, to wit, treasury notes, issued by the government itself, 
and for the payment of which, with the interest thereupon, its faith 
was solemnly pledged. From this time, therefore, the public 
lands might be paid for in either '■specie'' or '• treasury notes^ 
and it was at the option of the purchaser, by the law, to make 
his payments in the one or the other medium, as his interest, 
or convenience, or pleasure, should dictate. 

"On the 25th day of February, 1813, another law was passed 
' to authorize the issuing of treasury notes for the service of the 
year one thousand eight hundred and thirteen,' and, on the 4th 
day of March, 1814, another similar law was passed 'to authorize 
the issuing of treasury notes for the sei'vice of the year one thou- 
sand eight hundred and fourteen,' both of which last mentioned 
laws contained a provision precisely similar, in substance and in 
terms, to that above quoted from the law of 1812. 

"On the 31st day of March, 1814, an act was passed, entitled 
' An act providing for the indemnification of certain claimants of 
public lands in the Mississippi territory.' By this act the Presi- 
dent of the United States was directed to cause to be issued, 
from the treasury, certificates of stock to certain claimants to 
lands under ' the Upper Mississippi Company,' under ' the Ten- 
nessee Company,' under ' the Georgia Mississippi Company,' under 
' the Georgia Company,' and under ' Citizens' right,' so called, for 
amounts and upon conditions prescribed in the act ; and the 
fourth section of the act is in the following words: 

" ' Sec 4. And he it further enacted, That the said certificates of stock 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wriqiit. 727 

shall be receivable in payment of the public lauds, to be sold after the date 
of such certificates, in the Mississippi territory: Provided, That on every 
hundred dollars to be paid for such lands, ninety-five dollars shall be receiv- 
able in such certificates, and five dollars in cash: Provided, That no person 
or persons, making payment for lands in certificates authorized to be issued 
by this act, shall be entitled to the discount for prompt payment now allowed 
by law to purchasers of public lands.' 

"Here was a new medium of payment for public lands in tlie 
Mississippi territory, which authorized purchasers of lands from 
the United States, there subject to the limitations of the act, to 
make payment either in 'specie' or in 'treasury notes,' or in 
these 'certificates of stock,' subsequently more familiarly known 
as 'Mississippi land scrip.' In relation to all the public lands 
other than those in the Mississippi territory, as it then existed, 
the currency or medium in which payments were to be made 
was left unchanged, and continued to be regulated by the laws 
before referred to, and to be ' specie ' or ' treasury notes.' 

"By an act, passed on the 26th day of December, 1814, enti- 
tled ' An act supplemental to the acts authorizing a loan for the 
several sums of twenty-five millions of dollars and three millions 
of dollars,' a further emission of treasury notes was authorized 
to the amount of ten and a half millions of dollars, and the fol- 
lowing is a copy of the first clause of the third section of the act : 

" ' Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the treasury notes to be issued 
by virtue of this act shall be prepared, signed and issued in the like form 
and manner; shall be reimbursable at the same places and in the like periods; 
shall bear the same rate of interest ; shall, in the like manner, be transfer- 
able ; and shall be equally receivable, in payments to the United States, for 
taxes, duties, and sales of the public lands, as the treasury notes issued by 
virtue of the act of Congress, entitled "An act to authorize the issuing of 
treasury notes for the service of the year one thousand eight hundred and 
fourteen," passed on the fourth day of March, in the year aforesaid.' 

" On the 24th day of February, 1815, a further act was passed 
entitled 'An act to authorize the issuing of treasury notes for the 
service of the year one thousand eight hundred and fifteen,' 
the first clause of the sixth section of which is in the words 
following : 

" ' Sec. 6. And he it further enacted, That the treasury notes, authorized to 
be issued by this act, shall be everywhere receivable in all payments to the 
United States.' 



728 Life and Times of Silas WiUght. 

" Neither of the two last mentioned acts made any change in 
the character of the currency or medium of payment, authorized 
by law to be received for the public lands, at the time of their 
passage, but merely added to the quantity of that medium which 
rested upon the faith and credit of the government. Still, there- 
fore, ' specie ' and ' treasury notes ' were receivable for all lands, 
wherever situated, and ' specie,' ' treasury notes ' and ' Mississippi 
land scrip' for that portion of the public lands situate within the 
Mississippi territory. 

"This brings the examination, in point of time, up to the 
charter of the second Bank of the United States, in 1816; and it 
may be proper here to remark that, in case the committee have 
been mistaken as to the force, effect and true construction of the 
act of the 10th of May, 1800, and that act did not exclude the 
bills and notes of the old Bank of the United Stat^es from being a 
legal medium for the payment for lands, still, inasmuch as the 
charter of that bank expired on the 3d day of March, 1811, by 
its own limitation, and as the tenth section of the charter, which 
made its bills and notes receivable for any description of public 
dues, was repealed on the 19th day of March, 1812, by an act of 
Congress passed for that sole purpose, it will be seen that this 
difference of construction of the act of 1800, if admitted, will 
only affect the currency or medium, in which the public lands 
might be paid for, up to the 3d of March, 1811, or, at most, up 
to the 19th of March, 1812, when that bank had ceased to exist 
as a bank, and its bills and notes to be receivable by law for any 
portion of the public dues. At the period of time of which the 
committee now speak, therefore, the currency or media, made 
receivable by law in payment for the public lands, was as last 
above enumerated. 

" The act to charter the late Bank of the United States was 
passed on the 10th day of April, 1816, and the fourteenth section 
of that charter made the bills and notes of the bank, payable on 
demand, receivable in all payments to the United States, ' unless 
otherioise directed hy act of Congress? This added to the cur- 
rency receivable by law in payment for the public lands a new 
medium, to wit, the bills or notes, payable on demand, of the 
late Bank of the United States. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 7^9 

"The joint resolution of 181G followed but twenty days boliin.l 
the bank charter, it having been passed, and met the approval ..f 
the President on the aotli day of April, 1816. That resohitiun 
required and directed the Secretary of the Treasury to aibipt 
such measures as he should deem necessary to cause, as soon as 
might be, all duties, taxes, debts or sums of monev, bc'c-oniini,^ 
due to the United States, to be collected and paid ' in the Ic-mI 
currency of the United States, or treasury notes, or notes of the 
Bank of the United States, as by law provided and declared^ or 
in notes of banks which are payable and paid on demand in the 
said legal currency of the United States.' The resolution went 
on to declare that, after the 20th day of February, 1817, no 
duties, taxes, debts or sums of money, payable to the United 
States, ought to be collected or received otherwise than in the 
currency or media of joayment befoi-e enumerated. Here was 
unquestionably given a permission to receive in payment of any 
portion of the public dues, and consequently in payment for the 
public lands, as well as other dues, the notes of specie-paying 
State banks, and it is the first j!?ermm«o;i of that character which 
has met the notice of the committee in any of the acts of Con- 
gress. They are aware that some consider this resolution as man- 
datory, rendering the reception of these notes obligatory upon 
the head of the Treasury department, but they do not so consider 
it. It is not their purpose, however, to discuss this question here, 
as that discussion pertains, more appropriately, to the second 
branch of the resolution referred to them. Under either con- 
struction, the resolution of 1816 made it lawful to receive a new 
medium of payment for the public lands in ' the notes of banks 
payable and paid on demand in the legal currency of the United 
States.' 

" From this time, therefore, the officers of the government were 
compelled to receive, in payment for all public lands, 'specie,' 
treasury notes, ' the bills or notes of the Bank of the United 
States, payable on demand;' and were also permitted to receive 
the notes of other banks ' which were payable and paid on demand 
in the legal currency of the United States;' and, in addition to 
these media of payments, they were compelled to receive ' -Mis- 
sissippi land scrip ' for lands sold in the Mississippi territory. 



730 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" Thus remained the law upon this subject until the passage of 
the act of the 24th of April, 1820, entitled 'An act making fur- 
ther provision for the sale of the public lands.' This law abol- 
ished credits upon sales of public lands, from and after the 1st 
day of July, 1820, and declared that ''every purchaser of land 
sold at public sale thereafter sftall, on the day of purchase, maJce 
complete payment therefor • and the purchaser at private sale 
shall produce to the register of the land office a receipt from the 
Treasurer of the United States, or from the receiver of public 
moneys of the district, for the amount of the purchase-money on 
any tract, before he shall enter the sanne at the laiid office? 

" The fourth section of the act makes provision for the sale of 
such lands as had been sold under former laws, and had reverted, 
or should thereafter revert, to the United States in consequence 
of the non-payment of the purchase-money, and also of lots and 
tracts theretofore reserved from sale, and contains a proviso in 
the following words : 

" ' Provided^ That no such lands shall be sold, at any public sales hereby 
authorized, for a less price than one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, nor 
on any other terms than that of cash jiayment ; and all the lands offered at 
such public sales, and which shall remain unsold at the close thereof, shall 
be subject to entry at private sale, in the same manner and at the same price 
with the other lands sold at private sale at the respective land offices.' 

" Although the terms of this law, and esjaecially those employed 
in the proviso above quoted, ' nor on any other terms than that 
of cash payment^ would seem to favor the idea that it was the 
intention of Congress, from and after the day fixed in the law, 
to part with the public domain for ' cash,' for money only, in the 
strict and proper sense of the word ; and although the policy of 
the law, in the abolition of all credits and the great reduction 
of the price of the lands, from two dollars to one dollar and 
twenty-five cents per acre, would seem to have the same bearing; 
and although the committee infer, fi-om the lapse of time and 
the returns of sales, that the treasury notes and Mississippi land 
scrip had ceased, in a great degree, if not altogether, to be pre- 
sented in payment for lands ; yet, as they learn that no change 
as to the currency or medium of payment was introduced into 
practice in consequence of the passage of this act, they are con- 



Life and Times of Silas Winairr. 7:Ji 

tent to assume, for the purpose of the argument, Llial no chiui^r,. 
in this respect was intended by it, wliilc it certainly will nut be 
contended that it is susceptible of any construction which can 
add to the media of payment authorized by former acts of Con- 
gress, or make the receipt of any such medium compulsory, 
which before its passage was merely permissive. 

"The committee find no other law affecting the currency or 
medium of payment, to be received for the public lands, until 
the passage of the act of the 30th day of May, 1830, entitled 
' An act for the relief of certain officers and soldiers of the Vir- 
ginia line and navy, and of the continental army during the 
Revolutionary war.' The first section of this act makes it the 
duty of the Secretary of the Treasury and Commissioner of the 
General Land Office to issue certificates or scrip to certain officers, 
soldiers, sailors and marines, who were in the service of Virginia, 
on her State establishment, during the Revolutionary war, and 
who, by the laws and resolutions of the State, were entitled to 
military land bounties, upon the terms and conditions pointed 
out in the act. The first clause of the fourth section of the act 
is in the following words: 

" ' Sec. 4. And be it furtJier enacted^ That the certificates or scrip, to be 
issued by virtue of this act, shall be receivable in payment for any lands 
hereafter to be purchased at private sale, after the same shall have been 
offered at public sale, and shall remain unsold at any of the land offices of 
the United States, established or to be established in the States of Ohio, 
Indiana and Illinois.' 

" The sixth section of this act is in the words following : 

" ' Sec 6. And he it further enacted, That the provisions of the first and 
fourth sections of this act shall extend to and embrace owners of military 
land warrants issued by the United States in satisfaction of claims for 
bounty land for services during the Revolutionary war ; and that the laws 
heretofore enacted, providing for the issuing said warrants, are hereby 
revived and continued in force for two years.' 

"The first clause of the seventh section is as follows: 

" ' Sec 7. And he it furtJier enacted, That the provisions of this act shall 
also be deemed and taken to extend to all the unsatisfied warrants of the 
Virginia army on continental establishment.' 

" These provisions added another medium of payment for the 



732 Life akd Times of Silas Wright. 

public lands in what has been commonly denominated ' the Vir- 
ginia land scrip,' subject to the limitations expressed. 

"On the 3d day of March, 1836, the charter of the last Bank 
of the United States expired by its own limitation, and the insti- 
tution, for banking purposes, ceased to exist on that day; and, 
by a law of Congress passed on the 15th day of June, 1836, the 
fourteenth section of the charter, making its bills and notes 
receivable in payment of the public dues, was repealed. 

" This is believed to have been the exact state of the law in 
reference to the currency or media of payment receivable for the 
public lands at the time when the treasury circular of the 11th 
of July, 1836, was issued. 

"Prior to this date, the committee suppose the law of the 31st 
of March, 1814, making the Mississippi land scrip receivable 
in payment for i^i^ihlic lands in the MississijDpi territory, had 
become obsolete by the entire receipt and canceling of the stock 
issued; and it is a matter of public notoriety that the treasury 
notes authorized to be issued by the several laws before referred to, 
of 1812, 1813, 1814 and 1815, had been, long before, so far wholly 
redeemed and canceled as to render those laws, for every purpose 
of this inquiry, also obsolete. The currency or media of payment 
receivable for the public lands, therefore, at the date of this order, 
had become reduced by the repeal of laws, the expiration of laws 
and the extinguishment of public liabilities, to ' specie ' and ' Vir- 
ginia land scrip,' the receipt of which was compulsory, and ' notes 
of banks which were payable, and paid on demand, in the legal 
currency of the United States,' the receipt of which was merely 
permissive. The circular acted upon the bank-notes merely, and 
was in effect a direction to the receivers of public moneys for 
lands not to use the permission granted by the joint resolution 
of 1816, as to bank-notes, so far as the payments for lands were 
concerned. This suspended the receipt of the notes in this 
branch of the revenue and left the payments for lands to be 
made in specie and Virginia land scrip. 

" The reasons which prevailed upon the mind of the then Presi- 
dent of the United States to direct the circular to be issued are 
given in the paper itself. It recites, in substance, that com- 
plaints had been made of extensive frauds practiced in the sales 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 7:^3 



of the public lands; of vast speculations in those hauls uikU'i- tlir 
system of sale and payment then in use; of alarming a( tempts lo 
monopolize large tracts of the lands in the hands of iudiviiliial 
and associated proprietors; of the aid given to effect all these 
objects by excessive bank credits, by dangerous if not partial 
facilities through bank drafts and bank deposits; of the general 
evil influence likely to result to the public interests by these pro- 
ceedings; of the danger to the public treasury from this rapid 
accumulation of bank ci-edits, in lieu of money, in its favor, as 
well as the danger to the currency of the country generally from 
the unprecedented expansion of credits and the further exciiange 
of the public domain for credits in bank or bank paper. Then 
follows the mandatory part of the circular, in these words: 

'"The President of the United States has given directions, and you are 
hereby instructed, after the fifteenth day of A.ugust next, to receive in pay- 
ment of the public lands notliing except what is directed by tlic existing 
laws, viz., gold and silver, and, in the proper cases, Virginia land scrip; 
Provided, That, till tlie fifteenth of December next, tlie .same indulgences 
heretofore extended as to the kind of money received may be continued, foi 
any quantity of land not exceeding 320 acres, to eacli purchaser wlio is an 
actual settler or a bona fide resident in the State where the sales are made.' 

" That the complaints recited in the circular were made, the 
committee certainly need not labor to prove to any who were mem- 
bers of either House of Congress from 1834 to 1830, inclusive; 
to any who listened to the debates aiul proceedings of either 
House during that period; to any who read the i)ublished pro- 
ceedings of Congress, or listened to the voice of a large portion 
of the public press of the country, for the time alluded to. No 
one of these classes of persons can have forgotten the numerous 
and constantly repeated charges of favoritism, partiality, collusion 
and fraud said to be practiced by the officers charged with the 
sale of the public lands, and with the collection of the revenue 
therefrom. No one of these classes of persons can have forgotten 
the charges of sinister accommodations, of favoritism, of partial- 
ity and of corruption, made against the State banks generally, 
and especially against those which had been selected as deposit 
banks and had accepted the trust. Every forum was filled with 
these charges and complaints, and every vehicle which trans- 



734 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

poi'ted the public mail groaned under their weight, as they were 
diffused throughout the land. 

'' That speculations were going on in the public lands, immense 
in extent and in the capital and credit involved, became more 
fully demonstrable by every return from the receivers at the land 
offices. The proceeds of the sales arose, in consecutive years, 
from four millions of dollars — which was more than the previous 
average amount per annum — to fourteen millions, and from 
fourteen millions to twenty-four millions in a single year. That 
monopolies in the hands of private holders, highly injurious to 
the settlement and prosperity of the new States, must grow out 
of sales thus accelerated, was a necessary and unavoidable conse- 
quence. The number of acres sold in a year proved conclusively 
that vast quantities were purchased for a market, and for specu- 
lation — not for settlement and cultivation ; while the passion 
to purchase seemed to increase with the increase of sales, until 
there was reason to apprehend that the means of payment were 
traveling in a circle from the banks to the land offices, and from 
the land offices to the banks, without adding other or further 
security for the lands sold than the increased indebtedness of the 
banks to the treasury, and the increased indebtedness of the 
purchasers to the banks. 

" While these appearances and causes of uneasiness were 
exhibiting themselves to those charged with the management of 
this branch of the public service, forebodings of evil were not 
spared by those w^hose confidence in these public servants was 
not without limit. They were warned against a sacrifice of our 
rich public domain; against a monopoly of that vast estate by 
those said to be favored by their position, favored by power and 
favored by the banks ; against an exchange of that splendid 
inheritance, the price of the blood of the patriots of the Revolu- 
tion, for bank credits, bank paper, ' hank rags.'* They were 
charged to look to the public treasury, and see that its numerous 
and rapidly increasing millions upon paper were realized to the 
people in a sound, and not a depreciated, currency. They were 
told of the dangers and evils of these sudden and vast accumula- 
tions in the banks; and speedy and fatal derangements of the 
currency generally were predicted, with a confidence which could 



Life and Times of Si has We k hit. 7:5-, 

not have been exceeded in prophets possessing ploimiy powers to 
bring about the fulfillment of their own predictions. 

"Such, briefly, was the history of the times up to and tlnough 
the session of Congress of 1835-3G; and much of the lime ..f ilmt, 
session was consumed, in both Houses, in considering proposit ions 
in relation to the revenue, the deposit and (^afe-keepiog of the 
public moneys, the diminution of the surplus of revenue so 
rapidly collecting in the banks, and other kindred measures; but 
the session of Congress closed and nothing was done. Still, the 
evil complained of and apprehended was extending itself, and 
accumulating strength from its own advances. 

"Under these circumstances the circular was issued; and as 
the seat of the disease was assumed by all to rest in the dano-er- 
ous expansions by the banks, and the incautious facility with 
which they extended accommodations to the purchasers of the 
public domain, the check was made to operate upon their issues 
of paper, and to bring to the test of real capital this branch of 
the public revenues. It should not be overlooked that the circu- 
lar was not to take effect until more than thirty days after it was 
issued, and that even then an exception to its operation was 
made, in favor of actual settlers, for a term of four months, and 
until after Congress would be again in session. It is but just to 
give here the conclusion of this letter in its own words, that the 
objects designed to be reached and effected by it may not be 
mistaken. Its last paragraph is as follows: 

" ' The princiijal objects of the President in adopting this measure being 
to repress alleged frauds, and to withhold any countenance or facilities in 
the power of the government from the monopoly of the public lands in the 
hands of speculators and capitalists, to the injury of the actual settlers in the 
new States and of emigrants in search of new homes, as well as to discourage 
the ruinous extension of banli issues and bank credits by whicli these results 
are generally supposed to be promoted, your utmost vigilance is required 
and relied on to carry this order into complete execution.' 

" Such was the order, and such were the objects intended to be 
accomplished by it. That its action upon the banks, and espe- 
cially in the land States, was, in some degree, harsh and severe, 
is unquestionably true. The condition of the institutions and 
the extension of their business, which called it forth, rendered 
this consequence certain and unavoidable. But, before this effect 



736 Life and Times of Silas Wkwht. 

of the circular should be made the ground for its condemnation, 
it should be considered how pressing was the necessity which 
called for some protection against a hasty transfer of the whole 
public domain for an equivalent, rendered uncertain, at best, 
from its vast amount and rapid accumulation; how urgent was 
the call for some measure which should either check the strong 
current of receipts rushing into the treasury, or give increased 
security and safety to the millions thus amassing beyond the 
wants of the government; which should stay the expansions of 
the banks, or guard the public domain and public treasure against 
the ruinous consequences certain to follow from the revulsion 
which these expansions could not fail to draw after them ; how 
imminent was the danger to the currency of the whole country 
if these millions of the public money were suffered to multiply 
in the banks, and thus give strength and force and extent to the 
evil which all saw, all felt, and against which all demanded 
protection. 

" That these dangers surround us now, unfortunately requires 
no proof. The history of the country and of our banking insti- 
tutions, as well as of our public treasury, since the date of this 
circular, abundantly proves their existence and their extent. 
That the banks had extended their circulation and their credits 
beyond the point of prudence and of safety none Avill now ques- 
tion; that the public treasure in their keeping had become, 
and was becoming, unsafe from these excesses and indiscretions 
experience has now demonstrated; and that every public interest 
required and demanded a check upon the excesses of banking, the 
excesses of trade and the excesses of speculation is now beyond 
dispute. 

"It has been objected to the treasury circular, as the appro- 
priate remedy for the evil complained of, that it adopted a rule 
of discrimination, between the currency or medium of payment 
receivable for the public lands and for the revenue from customs, 
new, unknown to our laws and regulations for the collection of 
the revenue, and indefensible upon principle. 

" It has been already seen that discriminations of this charac- 
ter are not new to our laws. As early as the year 1797 the evi- 
dences of the public debt, which were transferable certificates of 



Life and Tjmes of Silas Wukiiit. 7:1 



/ •>/ 



indebtedness, were made by law receivable in payment lor tlic 
public lands, but were not receivable in payment for duties or^ 
any other public dues. In 18 U the Mississippi laiid scrip was 
made by law receivable in payment for the public lands in a spe- 
cified territory, and not for the public lands generally, or in any 
other branch of the revenue, or for any other dues to the govern- 
ment. In 1823 the gold coins of Great Britain, Portugal, France 
and Spain were made receivable, at specified values, in payments 
for lands, while those coins were not, by any law of Con<--ress in 
force at that time, receivable in any other branch of the revenue 
or made a tender in the payment of any other debts. And as 
late as 1830 the Virginia land scrip was made receivable for 
lands in the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and in no other 
States and for no other payments to the United States; and the 
same scrip is yet a medium of payment for public lands, its appli- 
cation having been extended and made general by an act of 1835. 
Discriminations of this character, therefore, have lono- been 
known to the law and the practice of our public collections, and 
the circular introduced no new principle in this respect into our 
system. 

" Is there, then, any ground upon which the circular can be 
justified as having been made applicable to the receipts for lands 
and not for customs? The committee think some suggestions 
may be made which will go far to justify this aj)plication of the 
order, and they will proceed to state them. 

"In the first place, an excessive currency of any character has 
a necessary tendency to sink the value of that currency, when 
compared with the value of marketable property for which it is 
exchanged. Plence the invariable nominal rise in the market of 
property of all descriptions which is open to a free market, when 
that which is used as money is abundant and cheap; and one of 
the strongest evidences that our paper currency was excessive 
during the years 1835 and 1836, is found in the fact that prices 
constantly advanced, although the supplies in almost every 
department of trade and production were unusually abundant, 
and no extraordinary demand was known to exist. The duties 
which constitute our revenue from customs are almost all a 
rate per centum imposed upon the value of the article. If, 
47 



738 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

then, the quantity of dutiable goods imported be the same, 
and the value be nominally increased in consequence of an 
excessive currency, the value of the duties will be nominally 
increased in the same ratio, and therefore the collection of the 
duties in the cheapened currency will keep the real value of the 
revenue from the importations at a given standard. Not so with 
our public lands. They have not been, and are not in this sense, 
open to a free market. Their value per acre is fixed by law; and 
however much the currency in which they were purchased may 
have been cheapened by abundance, they could not rise with 
other property to a price which would restore the equilibrium. 
They were bound down by a statute value ; and when the cur- 
rency to be received in payment for them was designated, the 
same nominal value of that currency, however much it might be 
cheapened by excess, would purchase the same quantity of the 
lands. 

"If this suggestion required illustration, the history of the 
years 1835 and 1836 would afford the most ample. Speculations 
were excessive in almost every branch of trade and every descrip 
tion of property; but most so, and of the longest continuance, in 
the public lands. Why was this so ? Clearly because, as our 
paper currency became more abundant, it became more cheap; 
and while every other description of property advanced in price, 
in a ratio nearly equal to the depression in value of the currency 
which paid for it, the market value of the public lands remained 
the same, and the same amount of the cheapened currency would 
purchase the same quantity of the lands. Hence they soon 
became the cheapest commodity in the market, and therefore 
continued to attract the attention of purchasers for the longest 
time, and to the latest period of the business excesses. 

" This consideration would seem to the committee to ofier a 
reason for the discriminating application of the circular at the 
time it was issued. When Congress fixed the value of the public 
domain at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, the intention, 
no doubt, was that the treasui-y should receive that sum in coin, 
or its equivalent. If, then, the paper currency had become so 
far cheapened, in consequence of its excess, that one dollar and 
twenty-five cents in it was worth less than the same sum in coin, 



Life and Times of /Silas Wriuut. 



■v.) 



that difference was most palpably a net gain to the purchasers of 
the lands, and an entire loss to the Avholo people of the coimtrv, 
to whom the public domain belongs. That the cominilLeo an; 
not mistaken in supposing that the paper currency was chcapeticd 
below the value of coin, is proved from the almost instant opera- 
tion of the order itself, when one hundred and ten dollars of tiie 
paper were paid for a hundred dollars of the coin, to be expended 
in the purchase of the same lands, at the same price. 

"In the second place, a check upon the excessive issues of 
paper and the dangerous extensions of credit was one of the 
great objects to be attained. The two great sources of revenue 
were the public lands and the foreign importations. For the for- 
mer the paper, while it continued to be the currency of the trea- 
sury for their purchase, was the exclusive standard of value. 
It made the whole jjurchase. It was an accepted medium for 
the entire payment, and when the trade became excessive a 
check upon the paper was a check upon the whole capital 
embarked. Not so with the foreign importations. The paper 
was the medium of payment for the duties simply. The goods 
upon which the duties were assessed were, and must be, pur- 
chased abroad, where our bank paper could not circulate and did 
not constitute a medium of payment, and where coin and the 
equivalent of coin would alone pay the debts of the American 
merchant. If, then, it be considered that but about one-half of 
the amount of our foreign importations is chargeable with duties 
at all, and that the duties upon the remaining half do not proba- 
bly, at the present time, exceed an average of thirty per centum, 
it will be seen how feeble, in the comparison, would have been 
the check imposed by the order upon this branch of the revenue. 
In the case of the lands it reached the whole capital, and, as has 
been seen, imposed upon it a check equal to some ten per centum, 
while in the case of the importations it could have reached but 
the mere incident of the duties, being only some fifteen per cen- 
tum upon the whole capital, and, at the same rate of calculation, 
affording a check only equal to about one and a half per centum. 

"Again, excessive issues of paper by our banks would act 
directly and to the whole extent upon the trade in the public 
lands, so long as the paper continued to be received in payment 



740 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

for them, because it would meet the whole cost and constitute 
an acceptable medium for the whole jDayment; while the same 
excessive issues of the same paper would act but indirectly and 
incidentally upon our foreign trade. It might, to some extent 
and for a limited period, cheapen our products to be sent abroad 
and exchanged for foreign merchandise and in this way stimu- 
late the foreign trade. It might, while the paper remained 
nominally equivalent to gold and silver and convertible into 
them, by cheapening the precious metals, lead to their profitable 
exportation and thus tend to make foreign trade excessive. And 
it would, while the countries with which the business was carried 
on remained at a healthful standard, add a direct stimulus as to 
that part of the capital required to pay the home duties. Still, 
it will be seen that the impetus given to foreign trade by exces- 
sive banking at home is indirect, incidental and partial; while that 
given to domestic speculations, such as that which has recently 
taken place in the public lands, is direct, positive and universal. 
These considerations, in the minds of the committee, should go 
far to justify the discriminating application of the order. 

"In the third place, so large a portion of the operations of 
foreign trade is brought to the direct test of real capital, to the 
touchstone of a currency of intrinsic value, that excesses in that 
trade will soon check themselves. Not so with domestic trade 
based upon an excess of paper currency, while that paper con- 
tinues to be an acceptable medium of payment in all its opera- 
tions. So long as that state of things can be preserved the 
domestic excesses may be continued and extended at pleasure. 
Here, again, our recent experience furnishes us proof of the cor- 
rectness of our positions. The excesses may be said to have 
commenced in both branches of our trade at about the same 
time. The domestic branch received the earliest check in the 
order under consideration, and yet that portion of it confined to 
the public lands had increased sixfold in two years, thus show- 
ing the direct and powerful impetus communicated to it, and the 
unlimited power of expansion it possessed, until checked by 
extraneous application, by the test of real capital, not introduced 
by its own movements but forced upon it by an independent 
power. Notwithstanding this application to our domestic trade, 



Life and Timks of Silas Wruiiit. 71| 

howevei" sudden and harsh as it is supposed to liave been, mont lis 
passed away before the self-correcting principle of the foreign 
trade produced any sensible check in that br;inc]i. Yet, altliougli 
its amount had not been doubled during tlie whole period of 
excess, when this correcting [)rinciiile diil maiiifost its power a 
business paralysis was felt throughout tlie whole (•(nmtry. All 
business was suddenly arrested, and the banks themselves were 
compelled to suspend specie payments, without the al)ility to 
give a hope of resumption until a healthful equilibrium could he 
restored to this trade. Such, then, is the check which the foreign 
trade contains within itself, while the domestic, if once diivcii to 
excess, must look abroad for the corrective; and hence the 
greater propriety of applying the order in question to the one 
than to the other. 

"To such as entertain the opinion that the pecuniary allairs of 
the country were healthful and well at the time this order was 
issued, that nothing required to be done, no check to be imposed, 
arguments in justification of the order Avould be addressed in vain. 
But such as admit that something was required, some protection 
to the public treasure and the public domain demanded, shoidd 
ask themselves what other or better measure was in the power 
of the executive, before they condemn this as too sudden, too 
harsh or too strong. They should remember that, although the 
land sales were materially checked and the revenue from that 
source beneficially diminished by the operation of the order, 
business was not convulsed, trade was not prostrated, and the 
banks were not closed until the commercial revulsion following 
from the excesses of our foreign trade interposed itself. That 
the operation of the order may have hastened, in some small 
degree, the commercial revulsion is barely possible; that it was 
the cause of that revulsion is not possible. The supposition is 
contradicted by the facts of history, applicable as well to other 
countries as our own, by the dates of events and by the neces- 
sary connection between cause and effect, 

" To the complaint that the order was made invidious by its par- 
tial application to a single branch of the public revenue, it would 
seem to the committee to be a satisfactory answer to say that it 
was made applicable to that branch of the revenue upon which 



742 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

it would act most efficiently as a check to the prevailing excesses; 
upon that branch of the revenue from which the heaviest surplus 
was accumulating in the treasury; upon that branch of the reve- 
nue which was most insecure, as time has since shown ; upon 
that branch of the revenue which, from the nature and character 
of the pi'operty out of which it arose, as well as from the medium 
in which it was entirely paid, most needed protection, by an 
efficient check upon the excesses of credit ; and that, if its action 
was necessarily severe, that action was materially mitigated by 
confining it to that branch of the revenue least diffused, in its 
exactions upon the tax-payers of the whole Union. 

" So much for the treasury circular of the 11th of July, 1836, 
for the peculiar circumstances which called it forth, for the 
reasons and views which dictated it, for the grounds upon which 
its partial and particular application is justified, and for answers 
to the prominent objections against it. 

" The suspension of sj^ecie payment by the banks, and the pro- 
visions of the deposit law of 1836, have, since the month of May, 
1837, rendered the order in question practically a dead letter, 
and it remains to this moment in that state unrescinded. 

"The Senate has, during its present session, with great and 
patient labor, digested, passed and sent to the House of Repre- 
sentatives a bill, such as met the approbation of a majority of 
its members, covering all these points, and calculated to make 
the rule for the currency, collection, safe-keeping and disburse- 
ment of the public revenue, in all its branches, uniform and iden- 
tical. As has been before remarked, one of the sections of that 
bill was, in its supposed purpose and object, similar to the first 
clause of the resolution referred to the committee, and now under 
consideration. The vote of the Senate, which introduced that 
section into the bill, does not leave room for a doubt that the 
body is decidedly friendly to the principle contained in it, the 
principle of uniformity in the currency or media of payment in 
all branches of the public revenue. The question is one which, 
so far as its present agitation is concerned, has originated in the 
action of the executive department of the government; but that 
department has repeatedly referred it, with all the attendant 
considerations, to Congress, that legislation, so far as Congress 



Life and Times of Silas Wrkuit. 7.1:5 

should think wise and expedient, miolit tuke tlie place oi' execu- 
tive regulation and executive discretion. Whether, under these 
circumstances, the Senate will consider it incumbent upon it to 
act further, upon any branch of this great subject, until it, shall 
be informed of the final disposition, by the House, of tlic l.ill it 
has sent down, covering the whole ground, is a question in icla- 
tion to which the committee do not feel called upon for the 
expression of an opinion. If it shall be supposed that this repe- 
tition of action may involve considerations of parliamentary rule 
or parliamentary courtesy, they will appropriately address them- 
selves to the Senate itself, and not to one of its committees. 

"The committee will, therefore, leave this branch of the reso- 
lution, with the single remark that, should the Senate be disposed 
to adopt it in its present form, some exception may be required 
to be made in relation to ' the Virginia land scrip,' now expressly, 
by law, made receivable for lands, but not for any other public 
dues. 

"The second clause of the resolution, proposing to make bank- 
notes the currency of the public treasury, is in the following 
words: 

" ' And that, until otherwise ordered by Congress, the notes of sound 
banks, which are payable and paid on demand in the legal currency of the 
United States, under suitable restrictions, to be forthwith prescribed and 
promnlgated by the Secretary of the Treasury, shall be received in payment 
of the revenue and of debts and dues to the government.' 

" The proposition here presented, also, has already received the 
definitive action of the Senate during its present session, but not, 
like the former one, the favorable action of the body. A refer- 
ence to the journal will show that, on the 24th day of JNfarch last, 
the ' bill to impose additional duties, as depositaries, upon certain 
public ofticers, to appoint receivers-general of public money, and 
to regulate the safe-keeping, transfer and disbursement of the 
public money of the United States,' being under consideration, 
the following amendment was moved, to stand as the twenty- 
third section of that bill, viz. : 

" ' Sec. 33. And be it further enacted, That the revenue of the United 
States, whether arising from duties, taxes, debts or sales of public lands, 
shall be collected and received in gold and silver, or in treasury notes, or iu 



744 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

the notes of banks which are payable and paid on demand in the legal coin 
of the United States, subject to such regulations and restrictions, in regard 
to the notes of specie-paying banks, as aforesaid, as Congress may, from 
time to time, establish and prescribe: Provided, That nothing in this section 
shall be so construed as to prohibit receivers or collectors of the dues of the 
government from receiving for the public lands any kind of laud scrip or 
treasury certificate now authorized by law.' 

" The only substantial difference between these propositions is, 
that the one now referred to the committee leaves the restrictions 
and regulations under which bank-notes are to be received to the 
Secretary of the Treasury, while the one formerly offered to the 
Senate reserved to Congress alone the right of imposing those 
restrictions. In all other respects both are substantially the 
same. The exclusive object and purpose of both is to make the 
notes of specie-paying banks receivable, by compulsion of law, 
in all dues to the government; and, although the one last quoted 
enumerates, also, gold and silver and treasury notes, yet the sole 
change it proposes in the existing laws is as to the bank-notes, 
inasmuch as gold and silver and treasury notes are, by the exist- 
ing laws, expressly ma^de receivable in payment of all dues to the 
United States. The propositions, therefore, are identical in sub- 
stance, with the single exception before named. A reference to 
the Senate journal of the twenty-fourth of ]\Iarch last will show 
that a vote of the Senate was taken upon the last named proposi- 
tion, and that it was rejected, every Senator being in his seat 
and voting upon the question. 

" This part of the resolution, therefore, like the former, is 
obnoxious to the objection that it is, in effect, but a mere repeti- 
tion of a proposition before made to the Senate and before 
deliberately and definitively acted upon by the body, during 
its present session. The committee do not mention this fact 
to prove that the Senate either cannot or ought not again to 
entertain the proposition, or that it will not be the pleasure of 
the body again to act upon it. As in relation to the former 
clause of the resolution, they do not feel called ujjon to express 
any opinion upon these points. They are questions, as it seems 
to them, addressing themselves to the Senate itself, and not 
to the committee, and with the Senate they cheerfully leave 
their decision. They will, however, respectfully suggest that a 



Life and Tuies of Sin as Wright. 745 

practice of this sort, extensively introduced, cduld Hdt prove 
economical to the time of a legislative body or lax t.i:d)lc lu iho 
certainty of its action. The same questions might, un(h'r such ii 
practice, call for a repetition of debate and a repetition nf voles, 
without any material advance in business; and, as tlic IhmIv 
might chance to be full or thin, as to numbers, at the inccisc 
moment of each vote, its decisions of the same (juestions niiglit 
be uniform or contradictory. These, however, are considerations 
which will not escape the attention of the Senate in disposing of 
the propositions nqw presented. 

"How, then, will the clause of the resolution now under con- 
sideration, if adopted and made part of the law of the land, 
change the law as it exists? And how will it affect the treasury 
and the public funds? In the opinion of the committee, it will 
make a medium of payment for public dues, to wit, specie-paying 
bank-notes, compulsory, which has heretofore been merely per- 
missive; and it will force upon the public treasury a currency 
which has proved, upon various occasions, to be unsafe and dan- 
gerous, when its receipt rested in the discretion, and therefore 
to some extent upon the official responsibility of the fiscal officers 
of the government, and which, if made the legal currency of the 
treasury, and compulsory upon it, will subject the public revenues 
to fluctuations, hazards and losses, highly detrimental to every 
important interest, public and private. 

"Are the committee right in supposing that this proposition 
involves the change of the existing laws which they have men- 
tioned ? As condensed an examination of our legislation upon 
this subject as can be made shall answer this inquiry. 

" The first law passed, after the organization of the government 
under the present Constitution, touching the currency or medium 
of payment in which the public dues should be collected and 
received, was an act passed on the 31st day of July, 1789, entitled 
'An act to regulate the collection of duties, imposed by law on 
the tonnage of ships or vessels, and on goods, wares and mer- 
chandises imported into the United States.' The thirtieth section 
of that act prescribed the currency to be received under it, and 
was in the following words : 

" ' Sec. 30. Arid U it further enacted, That the duties and fees to be col- 



746 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

lected by virtue of this act shall be received ia gold and silver coin only, at 
the following rates, that is to say: the gold coins of France, England, Spain 
and Portugal, and all other gold coins of equal fineness, at eighty-nine cents 
for every pennyweight ; the Mexican dollar at one hundred cents ; the crown 
of France at one dollar and eleven cents ; the crown of England at one dol- 
lar and eleven cents ; and all silver coins of equal fineness at one dollar and 
eleven cents per ounce.' 

" This established ' gold and silver coin only ' as the currency 
of the treasury, so far as the revenue from customs was con- 
cerned. This act was repealed by an act passed on the 4th day 
of August, 1790, entitled 'An act to provide more effectually for 
the collection of the duties imposed by law on goods, wai-es and 
merchandise imported into the United States, and on the tonnage 
of ships and vessels.' The fifty-sixth section was in the same 
words with the thirtieth section of the act of 1789 above quoted, 
with the following addition at the end of the section, viz. : ' and 
cut silver of equal fineness at one dollar and six cents per ounce.'' 

" The next law which affected the ciirrency of the treasury was 
the act passed on the 25th day of February, 1V91, entitled 'An 
act to incorporate the subscribers to the Bank of the United 
States.' The tenth section of this act was in the following words: 

" ' Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That the bills or notes of the said 
corporation, originally made payable or which shall have become payable, 
on demand, in gold or silver coin, shall be receivable in all payments to the 
United States.' 

"These laws constituted the currency of the treasury 'of gold 
and silver coin only,' or of the bills or notes of the Bank of the 
United States, originally made payable or which had become 
payable, on demand, in ' gold and silver coin ;' which currency 
was made receivable in all branches of the public revenue, and 
for all debts and dues of the government. 

" With the exception of the legislation as to the currency or 
media of payment receivable for the public lands, before noticed, 
the committee find no act of Congress changing this state of the 
law until the passage of the act of 2d May, 1799, entitled 'An 
act to regulate the collection of duties on imports and tonnage.' 
This act repealed the act of 1790, above referred to, and all prior 
acts and parts of acts conflicting with its provisions, and its 
seventy-fourth section is in the words following : 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 747 

*' ' Sec. 74. And U it further enacted, Tliat all duties and fees to be col- 
lected shall be payable in mouej^ of the United States, or in foreign g()ld 
and silver coins, at the following rates, that is to say: the gold coins of 
Great Britain and Portugal, of the standard prior to the year one thousand 
seven hundred and ninety-two, at the rate of one hundred cents for every 
twenty-seven grains of the actual weight thereof ; the gold ci)ins of France, 
Spain, and the dominions of Spain, of the standard prior to the year one 
thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, at the rate of one hundred cents for 
every twenty-seven grains and two-fifths of a grain of the actual weight thereof; 
Spanish milled dollars, at the rate of one hundred cents for each dollar, the 
actual weight whereof shall not be less than seventeen pennyweights and 
seven grains, and in proportion for the parts of a dollar; crowns of France 
at the rate of one hundred and ten cents for each crown, the actual weight 
vrhereof shall not be less than eighteen pennyweights and seventeen grains, 
and in proportion for the parts of a crown; Provided, That no foreign coins 
shall be receivable which are not, by law, a tender for the payment of all 
debts, except in consequence of a proclamation of the President of the 
United States, authorizing such foreign coins to be received in payment of 
the duties and fees aforesaid.' 

"By an act passed on the 9th day of February, 1793, entitled 
'An act regulating foreign coins, and for other purposes,' it is 
provided that the foreign coins above particularly named shall 
pass current, ' as money^ within the United States, and be a ten- 
der in payment of debts, at the rates above specified, which 
explains the proviso of the section; but what is tlie true legal 
construction of the terms ' money of the United States,'' used in 
the first part of the section, may require some examination. 

" On the 2d day of April, 1792, an act was passed entitled 'An 
act establishing a mint, and regulating the coins of the United 
States.' This act made the first provision for our national coin- 
age and for our national coin. Its provisions are numerous, but 
it is sufficient for the present purpose to say of them that they 
designate the coins of gold, silver and copper to be coined at 
the mint, being the same designations which the coins of the 
United States still bear; that they regulate the value of the coins, 
and that the sixteenth section is in the following words : 

" ' Sec. 16. And be it furtlier enacted, That all the gold and silver coins 
which shall have been struck at and issued from the said mint shall be a 
lawful tender in all payments whatsoever ; those of full weight, according 
to the respective values hereinbefore declared ; and those of less than full 
weight, at values proportioned to their respective weights.' 



748 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" The Constitution gives to Congress the power to ' coin money, 
regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin,' and the two acts 
last referred to are an exercise of that power; the latter provid- 
ing for coining money by means of a mint of the United States, 
and regulating the value of the money so to he coined, and the 
former regulating the value of foreign coin. This power is exclu- 
sive in Congress, as the Constitution of the United States ex- 
pressly prohibits the States from coining money. What, then, is 
'the money of the United States' here intended? In the opinion 
of the committee, it is the coin of the United States; the product 
of the mint of the United States; the money coined by the 
authority of Congress. In this opinion they do not suppose it 
possible they can be mistaken. The construction seems to them 
too clear to admit of argument or question. The collocation of 
the words ' money of the United States,' as used in the section 
of the act of 1799, above quoted, would seem to confirm this as 
the construction intended to be given to these words by Congress, 
in the passage of that law. The provision is, 'that all duties and 
fees to be collected shall be payable in money of the United 
States, or in foreign gold and silver coins;'' thus, as it would 
seem to the committee, contemplating a currency of metal only, 
and using the words which are used to distinguish between the 
coinage of our own country and foreign coinage. 

" It has been seen that, prior to the passage of this law, the 
revenue from customs was, by law, collectible in gold and silver 
coin, or in the bills or notes of the Bank of the United States. 
If the construction which the committee have given above to this 
act of 1799 be correct, the bills or notes were excluded by it from 
the collections of the revenue from customs, inasmuch as the 
112th section of the act repeals the act of the 4th of August, 
1790, and further declares that 'all other acts and parts of acts, 
coming within the purview of this act, shall be repealed and 
thenceforth cease to operate.' That branch of the revenue was, 
therefore, from that time forward, receivable in coin only ; that 
is to say, ' in money of the United States, or in foreign gold and 
silver coins.' 

"Between this date and the year 1811, no changes are found 
to have been made in the law prescribing the currency or medium 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 749 

of payment iu which any part of the public dues sliould ])o 
received, other than such as have been noticed under tlie i'ormcr 
head of this report, being such as affected that branch of the reve- 
nue derivable from the lands only. On the 3d day of ^March, 
181], the charter of the old Bank of the United States expired, 
and, by an act passed on the 19th of March, 1812, the tenth 
section of that chai'ter, making the bills or notes of the corpora- 
tion receivable in payments to the United States, was repealed. 
This left the act of 1799 the unquestioned rule as to the currency 
receivable in payment of the revenue from customs. 

" In this same year, however, and the three years succeeding, 
the various laws before referred to, of 1812, 1813, 1814 and 1815, 
authorizing emissions of treasury notes, were passed; all of wliich 
made the notes receivable in all branches of the revenue and for 
all dues to the government. They, therefore, wei-e added to the 
coin as a medium of payment in the collection of the duties and 
fees, under the act of 1799 and the other acts regulatino- the col- 
lection of the revenue from customs. 

"On the 10th day of April, 1816, the law passed to incorporate 
the second Bank of the United States, entitled ' An act to incor- 
porate the subscribers to the Bank of the United States.' The 
fourteenth section of this act was in the words following: 

"'Sec. 14. And be it further enacted, That the bills or notes of the said 
corporation, originally made payable or which shall have become payable, 
on demand, shall be receivable in all payments to the United States, unless 
otherwise directed by act of Congress.' 

" If this last clause of the section referred to ' acts of Congress ' 
thereafter to be passed and not to acts of Congress then in force, 
then this bank charter added a new medium of payment for all 
public dues, and made receivable in all branches of the public 
revenue, by the then existing laws, ' gold and silver coin,' ' trea- 
sury notes' and 'the bills or notes of the corporation payable on 
demand.' This seems to have been the construction given by 
Congress to those laws in the language used in the joint resolu- 
tion of the 30th day of April, 1816, This resolution, it will be 
seen by its date, passed but twenty days after the passage of the 
bank charter, and made a change in the legislation of Congress in 
relation to the currency of the public treasury much greater than 



750 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

any which had ever l)efore been known to our laws. Indeed, it 
must strike the attention of all, at this day, as somewhat remark- 
able, that during the existence of the government under the 
Constitution, the two bank charters alone excepted, no law or 
resolution or expression of Congress had recognized, in any form 
or to any extent, bank notes as a medium of payment at the 
treasury; and that even during the existence of the first bank 
charter, and notwithstanding the receivable character given to 
its bills and notes by its tenth section before quoted, the law of 
1799 before referred to, in relation to the collection of the reve- 
nue from customs, and the law of 1800 referred to under the 
former head of this report, in relation to the sale of the public 
lands, were both j^assed, and both confined the payments in 
these respective branches of the revenue to ' specie,' ' money of 
the United States,' 'gold and silver coin' or 'evidences of the 
public debt of the United States.' These laws, too, remained in 
full and unquestioned force, as to these provisions, during the 
whole remaining life of that bank charter and up to the time of 
the charter of the second bank, in 1816. 

"The joint resolution of 1816 here referred to is entitled 'A 
resolution relative to the more effectual collection of the public 
revenue,' and is in the following words: 

' ' ' Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States 
of America, in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and 
he is hereby, required and directed to adopt such measures as he may deem 
necessary to cause, as soon as may be, all duties, taxes, debts or sums of 
money, accruing or becoming payable to the United States, to be collected 
and paid in the legal currency of the United States, or treasury notes, or 
notes of the Bank of the United States, as by law provided and declared, 
or in notes of banks which are payable and paid on demand in the said 
legal currency of the United States; and that, from and after the twentieth 
day of February next, no such duties, taxes, debts or sums of money, accru- 
ing or becoming payable to the United States, as aforesaid, ought to be col- 
lected or received otherwise than in the legal currency of the United States, 
or treasury notes, or notes of the Bank of the United States, or in notes of 
banks which are payable and paid on demand in the said legal currency of 
the United States.' 

"Such was the resolution of the 30th of April, 1816 ; a resolu- 
tion called into existence by the derangement in our monetary 
system at that particular period; a resolution which, its form and 



Life am> Times of Silas Wuiciit. 7;,[ 

its terms, as well as the circumstances attenrlii.L,' it, all conclti- 
sively prove, was never intended, by the Congress w liidi |.:is>m.1 
it, to be a i^ermanent reguLation for tlie currency of tlic treasury, 
but a temporary aid in an attempt to recover fi. mi the widi- 
departures from the law, wliich tlie practices of the 'rrcMNury 
department had introduced; in an attempt to l)riiig liack, to a 
tolerable state, a practical, not a legal currency, whidi liad 
become intolerable. And it should be carefully borne in iniml 
that this resolution was not designed to release the standard ot 
curi'ency for the treasury from the operation of sound and w liolr- 
some laws, but to relieve the treasury from a depreciated cur- 
rency which had been, and was being, received into it against 
law. 

" The committee are not to be understood as speaking in terms 
of censure of the state of things existing in 1816, in relation to 
our monetary affairs, but merely as relating facts as they appear 
upon the face of the statute book. We had just then emerged 
from a state of war. Our contest had been with a rich, and 
powerful, and skillful, and experienced enemy. Our resources, 
both in men and money, were vastly more limited than they now 
are. A heavy balance of the debt of the Revolution remaimd 
unpaid, and our credit as a nation had become but partially 
established, either with our own or foreign capitalists. We were 
unprepared for war, and the expenses of making the necessary 
preparations, in the midst of hostilities, soon exhausted our trea- 
sury and depressed our credit. In tliat condition the country 
souffht aid wherever it could be obtained, and, among other 
resources, availed itself of that which was offered by a certain 
portion of the State banking institutions. In this way it became 
their debtor, and, being unable to pay, was compelled to wink at 
and finally to countenance their suspension of specie payments. 
Hence, also, arose the compulsion to make their irredeemable 
notes the currency of the treasury ; a compulsion stronger than 
the law; the compulsion upon the debtor not to refuse to honor 
the paper of his creditor. Surely, then, the committee are not 
disposed to cast censure upon the able and worthy and patriotic 
public officers, through whom these acts were performed, but to 
mourn, as they did, over that depressed condition of our beloved 



752 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

country which forced its faithful public servants to these 
extremities. 

" To extricate the treasury from these embarrassments, and, as 
far as might be, to reclaim the currency generally from derange- 
ments thus brought upon it, was the design and object of the 
resolution under consideration ; and who that has examined our 
previous legislation will believe that, but for these derangements, 
growing pruicipally out of loans and advances to the government 
in the hour of its utmost need, the resolution of 1816 would have 
ever met the approbation of a Congress of that day ? And who, 
in view of all these considerations, will believe that the Congress 
which did pass that resolution intended to render it compulsory 
as to the receipt of the notes of the State banks in payment of 
all public dues, and thus to fasten upon the public treasury, as a 
permanent and obligatory medium of payment, for all future 
time, that very currency from which the country had suffered 
and Avas then suffering so severely ? 

" Was the resolution imperative as to the receivability of the 
notes of the local banks? Such is not the construction wliich 
the committee give to it. The resolution names four distinct 
media of payment for the public dues, viz. : the legal currency 
of the United States (gold and silver coin), treasury notes, notes 
of the Bank of the United States, and notes of banks which are 
payable and paid on demand in the legal currency of the United 
States. The first three are mentioned as currency or media, ' as 
by law provided and declared,^ as it has been seen they were ; 
while the committee look upon the enumeration of the last, it not 
being a currency or medium of payment for the public treasury, 
'by law provided and declared,' as, in substance, granting a 
permission to the fiscal agents of the treasury to make it such, 
if payable and paid on demand in the legal currency; as, in effect, 
saying to the receivers of public money, in all the departments, 
you may receive the notes of the local banks in payments to the 
United States, provided they are redeemable and redeemed, on 
demand, in coin ; you are now receiving them while they are 
irredeemable ; but after the twentieth day of February next you 
^ ought'' not to receive them in that state. 

"Another view of the resolution will strengthen this construe- 



Life and Times of Silas W uihiit. 



I .»• 



tion. If it is impemive as to the vocoipt i.f il.c n.,t,.s nf ,tny 
local banks which arc payable and paid on (Ic-iii.in.l, ii, tlu- Ir-.d 
currency of the United States, it is equally iniperativu that t"hu 
notes of all local banks, which are so paid, sli:ill 1„. rfcfiv.-.l. 
Will the idea be entertained, for a moment, that tin- Congress ..f 
1816 intended this? Will it be believed that thry inlur..!..,! i,, 
make the notes of all the banks in the Union, and ..f all whirh 
the States should thereafter charter, and wliich should at the 
moment be specie-paying banks, an effective tender, at any and 
every point in the Union, in payment of all government dues ? 
The committee cannot entertain such an opinion. Tliey will not 
believe that the majority of any Congress of the United States, 
which has ever yet assembled, would have adopted a rule for 
the currency of the public treasury so incalculably dangerous. 
To them the resolution seems to have had one distinct and lead- 
ing object, viz., the discontinance of the receipt, at the treasury, 
of the notes of banks which were tiot payable and paid on 
demand in the legal coin of the United States. Still, the banks 
whose notes were to be excluded by such a rule were the banks 
which had aided the government in its then recent troubles, and 
to which it stood indebted. Hence the advisory rather than 
mandatory language in which the interdiction was couclied 
in the last part of the resolution; and hence, too, the inducement 
as to the receipt of the notes, in case they were redeemed in spe- 
cie, proffered in the first j^art of the resolution. Those portions 
which relate to 'the legal currency of the United States,' to the 
'treasury notes' and to the 'notes of the Bank of the United 
States' were not inserted to constitute, by the force of law, a 
currency for the treasury; for they were then, by the law, the 
curreiK-.y of the treasury for all payments to the United States. 
They were not made the currency of the treasuiy by the resolu- 
tion, but were so before the resolution had existence, and were 
described in it as the currency in which the public dues were to 
be paid, ' as hy law provided and declared? 

"The resolution, then, was not designed to and did not pre- 
scribe and establish a currency obligatory upon the treasury, but 
recited that which was so 'as by law provided and declared;' 
and authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to add to it, in the 
48 



754 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

collections of the revenue, the notes of banks which were payable 
and i^aid on demand in the legal currency of the United States, 
while it pronounced the opinion of Congress that he ' ought ' not, 
after a day named, to receive in those collections the notes of 
banks which did not redeem their notes in sjsecie on demand. 
If this question be yet doubtful, the committee will refer to the 
cotemporaneous construction of the government and its agents, • 
as shown bj^ their practice under the resolution, to establish the 
point. It will be recollected that the charter of the second Bank 
of the United States passed Congress on the 10th day of April, 
1816, just twenty days before the passage of the resolution in 
question. By the sixteenth section of that charter, ' the deposits 
of the money of the United States, in places in which the said 
bank and branches thereof may be established, shall be made in 
said bank or branches thereof^ etc. In pursuance of this require- 
ment, the public money was placed in the bank and its branches 
for safe-keeping and disbursement as soon as the institution was 
prepared to receive it, and the bank became, at every important 
point in the Union, the fiscal agent of the treasury both for 
the collection and disbursement of the public revenues. If, 
then, the receipt of the notes of all the specie-paying banks 
of the country was made compulsory upon the treasury by the 
joint resolution of 1816 (for it has already been shown that if 
the receipt of any such notes was compulsory the receipt of all 
were so), it made the receipt of all such notes equally compulsory 
upon the bank, as the fiscal agent of the treasury, so far as the 
collection of the public dues was concerned. Did the bank so 
construe the resolution or so practice under it? It shall speak 
for itself, in the language used in the twenty-fourth and twenty- 
fifth of its rules and regulations, adopted on the 3d day of Janu- 
ary, 1817, for the government of its branches. It will be seen 
by the dates that these rules and regulations were adopted just 
eight months and three days after the passage of the resolution 
by Congress, and the two here referred to are in the words fol- 
lowing : 

" 'Article XXIV. The offices of discount and deposit shall receive, in 
payment of the revenue of the United States, the notes of such State banks as 
redeem their engagements with specie, and provided they are the notes of 



Life and Times of Silas Whuuit. 



/.').') 



banks located in the city or place where the oiBce rccoivinR tl.o.n in cs..||, 
hshed. And also the notes of such othcM- banks, as a sp.-finl ,l..p„sit oh 
behalf of the government, as tlic Secretary of tlie Treasury nmy rcniiro 

" ' Articlk XXV. The offices of discount and deposit si.nli, at least onro 
in every week, settle with the State banks for their notes received i„ pny 
ment of the revenue, or for the engagements of individuals to the banks ^o 
as to prevent the balances due to the office from swelling to an inconvenient 
amount.' 

" Here is the construction put upon this resolution by the bank, 
immediately after its passage, and before the day named in it 
had arrived, when the treasury was to cease to receive tlic notes 
of non-specie-paying banks. Here, too, are the rules which were 
to govern, and which did govern, the practice of the bank under 
the resolution; and the committee are bound to presume tliat the 
construction and the rules met the approbation of those officers 
of the government whose duty it was to see the laws faithfully 
executed in this particular, as they were bound to see that their 
fiscal agent performed what they held themselves obliged to per- 
form in consequence of this resolution. They are also bound to 
presume that this practice was in accordance with the intention 
of the members of Congress who voted for the resolution, and 
with the construction given to it by the State banks interested, 
as the practice appears to have governed the conduct of the 
bank, without any interference on the part of Congress, from the 
time the rules and regulations were adopted until the month of 
October, 1833, when the public money ceased to be deposited 
with the institution. Surely, then, after such evidences of cotem- 
poraneous construction, it will not be contended that the reso- 
lution of 1816 was intended to, or did, make the receipt of all 
specie-paying bank-notes obligatory upon the treasury. 

"After this period, and during the continuance of the charter 
of the second Bank of the United States, no laws have met the 
attention of the committee which varied the description of cur- 
rency or media of payment for the public dues. The legal 
currency of the United States — treasury notes, and the notes of 
the Bank of the United States, payable on demand — was, there- 
fore, the legal currency of the treasury, with the permission, 
granted by the resolution of 1816, to receive the notes of the 
local banks payable and paid on demand in the legal currency of 



756 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

the United States, until the expiration of that charter. The 
charter expired on the 3d day of March, 1836, by its own limita- 
tion, and on the nineteenth day of June after, Congress repealed 
its fourteenth section, which made its notes receivable in pay- 
ments to the United States. 

" It is proper here to remark that the various laws authorizing 
emissions of treasury notes, and making them receivable for all 
government dues, had become obsolete, by the entire redemption 
of the notes, many years before the expiration of the bank char- 
ter, in 1836, and that medium of payment was thus practically 
withdrawn fi-om the currency of the treasury. The expiration of 
the charter of the bank, and the law of the 15th June, 1836, 
repealing the fourteenth section of the charter, withdrew another 
of those media in the notes of the bank, thus leaving ' the legal 
currency of the United States' the only currency compulsory 
upon the treasury, but leaving also the permission given, by the 
joint resolution of 1816, to receive the notes of specie-paying 
local banks. 

" This continued to be the state of things until the passage of 
the act entitled 'An act to regulate the deposits of the public 
money,' passed on the 23d day of June, 1836. The last clause of 
the fifth section of that act is in the following words: 

" ' Nor shall the notes or bills of any bank be received in payment of any 
debt due to the United States, which shall, after the fourth day of July, in 
the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, issue any note or bill 
of a less denomination than five dollars. ' 

"Thus modified, the law compelled the receipt of the legal 
currency of the United States, and permitted the receipt of the 
notes of such specie-paying banks as should not, after the 4th of 
July, 1836, issue notes of a less denomination than five dollars. 

"On the 12th of October, 1837, an act was passed entitled 
'An act to authorize the issuing of treasury notes,' the first 
clause of the sixth section of which reads as follows: 

" ' Sec. 6. And he it further enacted, That the said treasury notes shall be 
received in payment of all duties and taxes laid by the authority of the 
United States, of all public lands sold by the said authority, and of all debts 
to the United States, of any character whatsoever, which may be due and 
payable at the time when said treasury notes may be offered in payment.' 



Life and Times of Silas W h-K./ir. 



«.)/ 



"This law added again treasury notes ns a nicdiiun of pHyin.-ut, 
and thus stands the hiw at the present lime -ilir Ir^.il .-unTucy 
and treasury notes being made receivable by law, and llu- w,U'.h 
of specie-paying banks which have not, since the lih .l:iy ..f .Inly, 
1836, and do not, issue notes of a less denoniimii ion tlian live 
dollars, being permitted to be received by the rfs.ijuliun >>( l•^\^\, 
as modified by the deposit law of 1830. 

"In this last review of the legislation in relation to the cur- 
rency, references may not have been made, in all cases, to the 
laws prescribing the media of payment for the public lauds, but 
all such laws are believed to be particularly noticeil uikIlt the 
former head. None of the numerous laws resjulatint; the value 
of foreign coin, and of the coins of the United States, have been 
referred to under either head, as the coins of both descriptions, 
as far as regulated by law, have at all times been receivable in 
all the branches of the revenue, and for all dues to the govern- 
ment, either specifically, by the terms of the laws, or under the 
general designations of ' money of the United States ' and ' legal 
currency of the United States.' It may, however, be worthy of 
remark, that considerable changes are found in the laws regulat- 
ing the value of foreign coin, both as to the descriptions of coins 
legalized and made ' money of the United States,' and a tender 
in payment of debts, and as to the value fixed to the coins of 
difterent countries by the different laws, and that, during some 
periods, no foreign gold coins, and very few foreign silver coins, 
if any, have been legalized. It also appears that, by an act passed 
on the 3d day of March, 1823, the gold coins of Great Britain, 
Portugal, France and Spain were made receivable ' in all pay- 
ments on account of the public lands,' at specified rates, but for 
no other public dues; nor were any foreign gold coins, at that 
time, leo-alized and made a tender in the payment of debts. 

" Such has been the legislation of Congress on the subject of 
the currency or media of payment to be received for dues to 
the public treasury; and from it we learn that, with the exception 
of the two bank charters and the resoluiiuu of 1816, it has, in all 
cases and for all purposes, required in payment of the public due3 
gold and silver coin, or securities issued upon the faith and cn.-dit 
of the government. The bank charters present the only instances 



758 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

where bank-notes have been made a tender in payment of 
debts due to the United States; and in those instances the notes 
of the banks themselves only were so made, being the notes of 
banks in which the government itself was a stockholder to the 
amount of one-fifth part of the whole capital; of banks created 
by Congress, and over which Congress held sovereign control, 
both as the creating Legislature and as the guardian of the pro- 
perty of the people invested in them. The committee do not 
mean to be understood as speaking in terms of approbation of 
legalizing the notes of even these banks as a currency compulsory 
upon the treasury, but merely as distinguishing the banks which 
issued them from the banks chartered by the States, over which 
Congress has no control, in the management of which no branch 
of this government can exercise any voice, and in which the 
United States hold no interest. 

" Still, the proposition referred to the committee, and now 
under consideration, is that all the notes of all the specie-paying 
State banks of the country, of all such banks which the States 
shall hereafter charter, and of all such banks which may be here- 
after formed under any general bank laws or systems of free 
banking which any of the States have adopted or may hereafter 
adopt, ' shall be received in payment of the revenue, and of debts 
and dues to the government.' Such they understand to be the 
scope and effect of the proposition embraced in the resolution 
referred to them. Will the Senate adopt it ? The committee 
hope and believe not. The deliberate expression of the body 
against a proposition substantially similar, during its present 
session, strengthens this hope. 

" The permission to receive the notes of specie-paying State 
banks still exists, under the resolution of 1816. Do the interests 
of this government require more than this permission ? Will 
the security of the public treasure, the money of the people 
intrusted to the keeping of Congress, be increased by making 
the receipt of these notes compulsory upon the treasury ? The 
Constitution has protected the people themselves against being 
compelled to take bank-notes of any character in payment of 
dues to them, as individual citizens. It declares that ' no State 
shall make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment 



Life and Tlmes of Silas Wninur. 7f,0 

of debts;' and no one ever Ims, and l he <(.iiiinitlfi' pirsuriif im 
one will now, claim for Congress the power tlms denied i., dn. 
States. Were the fathers of the land, the iVainers of ihe ('..ii- 
stitution of the United States, wise in extendhitf this proleeiimi 
to the individual citizens of the country? Diil, and do, ili.-ir 
private interests require this protection? All will answer tliesc 
questions affirmatively. Is it possible, then, thai t liiir collected 
interest, their public treasure, is to be rendered nmre seeiire by 
an exactly opposite rule? Is it possible that their j)rivate, 
individual property can only be protected by securing to them 
the right to demand gold and silver in payment of their debts? 
and that their common treasure is to be better protected l)y 
taking this right from their servants, charged with its col- 
lection ? The citizens are at liberty to receive bank paper in 
payment of their debts, if they think it safe to do so, and the 
collectors of their revenue are at liberty to receive bank paper 
into the public treasury, if they think the paper safe to thai 
treasury. The Constitution guards the former against a compul- 
sion to take the paper ; and should Congress force that compul- 
sion upon the latter, because the Constitution does not interpose 
to prevent it ? The servants of the people in Congress or in the 
State Legislatures cannot force bank paper into the pockets of 
their constituents, in satisfaction of their debts; and should they 
force it into their public treasuries, in satisfaction of the dues to 
them ? The committee can see no state of facts, or train of argu- 
ment, which can reconcile these contradictions, and make the 
passage of this part of the resolution a public duty. Is thus 
proposition to be adopted for the benefit of the banks, as it is 
seen its adoption cannot be urged as a protection to the public 
interests and the public treasure? Do the banks require or ask 
it ? The committee believe they can answer for the solvent and 
well-conducted banks, that they have no such need, and make no 
such request ; that they have no desire that the currency of then- 
notes should rest upon any stronger basis than their known 
ability and willingness to redeem them with gold and silver, on 
demand ; and that they would not, if they could, have the notes 
of the eight or nine hundred banks of the several States made a 
legal tender for any purpose. That there have been banks winch 



760 Life and Tuies of 8ilas Wright. 

required the force of law to make their notes current and valu- 
able, recent experience has demonstrated, as, in the absence of such 
a law to force them upon the public, they have fallen dead and 
valueless upon the hands of private holders. That there may be 
other banks in the country which yet purport to be sound, and 
which still may require the aid of such a law as is here proposed, 
to enable them to pass off their notes for a much longer period, 
is very possible; but the committee sincerely hope, if such there 
are, that their number is small, and they are sure that none will 
advocate the passage of the resolution for the benefit of such 
banks. Of one thing they are most happy to be assured, and that 
is, that there are some banks in the country which require no such 
artificial aid; which have resumed specie payments, and are rising 
up, under all the embarrassments of the times, to the full per- 
formance of their whole duties to themselves and the public; and 
which present, to those behind them, a most worthy example of 
what good management and good faith can accomplish, without 
the aid of a law which shall compel the receipt of tlieir paper. 

" Try the proposition under consideration upon the banks them- 
selves. Would they receive each other's notes at par when they 
were all specie-paying banks ? Will a single sound bank among 
the whole number now consent to the passage of laws which shall 
compel them to receive each other's pajDcr at par, or even to 
receive it at all, after they shall have resumed specie payments? 
Most certainly not. Then shall Congress, by its legislation, com- 
pel a credit for the notes of the banks at the treasury, which 
they will not give, upon any terms, to the notes of each other ? 
Most assuredly the banks will not have the eflTrontery to ask 
Congress to do this, 

" It may be said, as it has been said, that opposition to this 
resolution is hostility to the State banks. The committee cannot 
view it in that light. Is it hostility to a bank to decline to make 
its notes receivable, by the force of law, in the payment of debts ? 
Have the rights of private incorporations become already so far 
advanced in our free country ? Are we compelled to pass laws 
to force off their notes, or be warred upon by these institutions ? 
Have the rights of cori:)orators become already so far paramount 
to the rights of the individual citizen, that we must so frame our 



Life and Times of Silas Wiuaiir. 7r,l 

laws as to compel the promises of llic one to \h- rccoivod at nm- 
treasury while we exact the money IVuni tlic other, or l)0 Bi-t 
down enemies to tlie corporations, merit uil:,- tin ir vcni^cuure ? U 
it a crime against the banks to object against making lh:it :i l.^al 
tender at the public treasury wliich the banks will imt rc<;ogni/.u 
to be a currency at their counters? No. 'riic condilion of tin- 
American legislator has not yet become so degradi-il. 'I'hr 
banker, deserving the name, who a})[ireciates the privileges eon- 
ferred upon him by law in the charter of his bank, and feels the 
obligations which attend upon liis profession ; who can contenl 
himself with reasonable gains, and athnits that he is not, more 
than the private citizen, exempt from the common moral oldiga- 
tion of paying his debts when he is able to do so, will interpose 
no claims, and ask no such protection for liis eredii. lie will 
applaud the legislator for passing such laws as will protect pri- 
vate rights, private property, the public interests of his constitu- 
ents, and public liberty, even though some of those laws should 
be intended to restrain the abuses of banking. lie will not con- 
sider efforts to protect the public morals and the interests of the 
whole people against any and all threatened dangers, as hostile 
to him or his bank; and if such a charge is to come from those 
engaged in the business of banking, it is to be looked for from 
those only who are conscious of a weakness requiring the aid of 
laws such as that now proposed; from those who have enjoyed 
the monopoly of having their notes exclusively made the legal 
currency of the public treasury, until the wealth and power 
acquired from too much public patronage and favor hav.- em- 
boldened them to demand as a right, in all situations, the exclu- 
sive privileges which were only accorded to relations the most 
intimate, and interests perfectly identical between them and the 
public ; or from those whose habit of leaning upon the public 
treasury for support has become so confirmed that that suj^p.-rt 
is rendered essential to healthful existence. To such, the refusal 
to pass this part of the resolution may seen, a hostile act, not 
because they believe they possess the riglit to .lemand the pro- 
tection, but because they feel its necessity too deeply to he able 
to reason as to the right. 

"It may be said, as it has been said, that tlie government is 



762 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

believed to be hostile to the State banks, and that this provision 
of the resolution should be passed to rebut so injurious a pre- 
sumption. The foundation for this suggestion, and the character 
of the remedy recommended for the supposed evil, deserve some 
examination, that the public mind may be disabused upon both 
points. 

" First, then, what foundation is there for the allegation that 
the government is hostile to the State banks, arid is prosecuting 
an extei-minating war against them ? Previous to the month of 
October, 1833, all the connection which had existed between the 
government of the United States and the banks chartered by the 
States, for a term of nearly eighteen years, had been prescribed, 
formed and conducted by and through the Bank of the United 
States, acting as the fiscal agent of the treasury of the United 
States. The committee, in a former part of this report, have 
shown what that connection was, and how far it extended. It 
consisted in the reception, by the Bank of the United States and 
its branches, ' in payment of the revenue of the United States,' 
of the notes of such State banks as ' redeemed their engagements 
with specie,' and were ' located in the city or place ' where the 
receiving bank or branch was located, and of the return of those 
notes to the State bank which issued them, ' at least once in 
every week,' to he redeemed with specie. This was the character 
and extent of the connection between the public treasury and 
the local banks, under the fiscal management of the Bank of the 
United States. To prepare for the expiration of the charter of 
that bank, and for the winding up of its affairs as a national 
bank, an institution which public opinion had clearly indicated 
was not to have existence in this country after the expiration of 
that charter, the Secretary of the Treasury, under the direction of 
the President, ordered the public money, from and after the 1st 
day of October, 1833, to be made in certain designated State banks, 
and not in the Bank of the United States. This was the commence- 
ment of a more extensive, intimate and responsible connection 
between the government and the local banks. It was matured 
and continued by executive direction, without any definitive 
action on the part of Congress, until the 23d day of June, 1836. 
In the meantime, this action on the part of the executive branch 



Life and Times of Silas Wuianr. 7(;^ 

of the government was most loudly coniphiincd ol", as cxhil)i(iiig 
a spirit of favoritism, toward the local hanks, (l;in;^erous to the 
public treasure of the nation, destructive of puliMi; coiifKh'tice, 
and consequently of public and private credit; us rcndfiinj^ ci-r- 
tain the entire prostration of business, and the dissoniiiiation «»f 
distress and bankruptcy throughout the land. Tlu" puhlic. reve- 
nue, however, continued to accumulate with a rapidity thtTi-ti>- 
fore unexampled, and business took a sudden impetus, whith 
drove it from a state of healthful and vigorous to one of wiUl 
and feverish action in the space of less than two years. These 
appearances filled the minds of many of the friends of the jiolicy 
of the executive with anxiety and concern, while tlie coniplaint.s 
of the opponents of the policy were changed to the dangers 
impending over the numerous millions of the public money in 
the insecure banks ; the improper uses to which the money was 
applied by the institutions ; the certainty of fatal derangement.s 
in the paper currency to be caused by the excesses, and the like. 
At this crisis, and on tiie 23d day of June, 1836, the act was 
passed entitled 'An act to regulate the deposits of the pul>lie 
money.' That act legalized the connection between the govern- 
Bient and the banks, and prescribed regulations of law for its 
future continuance. Still, the unnatural accumulations of reve- 
nue continued in a manner to alarm the minds of all, and to fur- 
nish the most conclusive evidence of fearful excesses in banking, 
and in the use of credits generally. The deposit act proposed no 
check to this state of things, so far as the public revenue was 
concerned, though it did provide another, and wluit Congress 
considered a safer, mode of keeping the vast amount of treasure 
collected and collecting. No other action of Congress provided 
this check ; and as much the greatest excess of collections was 
coming in from the lands, after the adjournment of Congress, on 
the 4th of July, 1836, and on the eleventh day of that month, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, under the direction of the President, 
issued the order respecting the medium in which payments for 
lands would, after certain periods named, be required to be made. 
This order first changed the tone of complaint from that of favor- 
itism on the part of the government toward the local banks, to 
that of deadly hostility against them. Time passed on, however, 



764 Life and TniEs of Silas Wright. 

and Congress met and adjourned again, and no law was passed 
affecting the collection of the revenue in any of its branches. 
The order had had the effect to diminish to some extent, but to 
a much less extent than was anticipated by its friends and pre- 
dicted by its opponents, the sales of the public lands, and to 
lessen, in the same proportion, the accumulation of revenue from 
that source. By this time, also, unequivocal evidences of a gene- 
ral business and commercial revulsion were exhibitinsf them- 
selves, not only throughout this country, but most of the com- 
mercial countries of Europe, and so rapidly did the change sweep 
on, that, before the expiration of the month of May, 1837, with 
a few unimportant exceptions, all the banking institutions of the 
United States were induced to susj^end the payment of their 
notes in specie. 

" This produced a new and embarrassing state of things for the 
government. All the means of the treasury to meet the current 
expenditures of the country were on deposit in the banks, and 
they were, by law, the depositories of the accruing revenue. 
Still, the act making them so prohibited the selection, as depo- 
sitories, of any but specie-paying banks, and made it the impera- 
tive duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to discontinue any 
bank as a depository which should ' at any time refuse to pay its 
own notes in specie, if demanded,' and to ' withdraw from it the 
public moneys which it may hold on deposit at the time of such 
discontinuance.' The deposit banks, therefore, were all to be 
instantly discontinued, and the country presented no others 
which could be selected, because it presented no specie-paying 
banks. Hence other depositories, different from and independent 
of the banks, were to be constituted, and, as a natural and almost 
necessary consequence, the officers of the government, charged 
with the collection of the public dues, were charged also with 
the keeping of the money collected, until it was required for 
disbursement. Another duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
made equally imperative by the deposit law, was promptly 
to withdraw from the banks, which had been depositories 
and were discontinued, the public moneys held by them 
on deposit at the time of their discontinuance. The per- 
formance of this duty involved greater difficulty, and, indeed, 



Life and Times of Silas Windiir. 7(j;> 

was rendered impossible. The laws wliicli liavc Iuth l.rfi.rt* 
referred to, the resolution of 1816 heiiij^ iiu-.lmhil, limiifl iho 
power as well as discretion of the Secretary of tlir Tifasiiry :im 
to the currenc}'^ or media of payment lie was at lil)erty lo n-eeivu 
from the banks or from any other public tlel)ti>is ; ainl neiilier 
that resolution, nor any of the other hiws, pir/ii/'/fi if him tn take 
in payments to the United States the notes of any bunk whieli 
did tiot pay its notes, on demand, in the leual euriH-ncy of thu 
United States; while another existing law, which will lie here- 
after referred to, expressly proliibited him from pa\iiig out Mich 
notes. The suspension of specie payments by tlu' l)aiiks was 
extended, as well to their public and i)rivate deposits as to tlieir 
notes, and they, therefore, would not answer the drafts of tlie 
Treasurer in any currency or medium whitli the law permitted 
him either to receive or disburse. Tlie drafts of the Treasurer for 
the moneys held on deposit by the banks, at the time of their 
discontinuance as depositories, were consequently protested for 
non-payment and returned, and little or notliing was realized, 
from the means on hand at the time of the suspension, to meet 
the current expenses of the government. To a very great extent, 
and from the operation of tlie same causes, the accruing revenue 
was cut off, and the public treasury threatened to be left wholly 
without means to meet the calls upon it. The notes of the non- 
specie-paying banks could not be received in payment of the 
revenue from customs ; and as the merchants could not, when 
their bonds fell due, obtain specie from the banks, either f.»r the 
bank-notes or for their own private deposits, they could not make 
payment, and the bonds lay over unpaid. It is true the revenue 
from the public lands had been, for some months, collectible in 
specie only, except the few payments in Virginia land scrii); but 
the suspension by the banks put it out of the power of those 
wishing to purchase lands to obtain specie to so great an extent 
as to render this resource wholly inadequate to the supply of the 

treasury. 

"Under these circumstances the President issued Ins procla- 
mation to convene Congress on the Hrst M lay of September 

last. In the meantime the debtor banks and debtor merchanta 
were in the hands of the executive officers of the government. 



766 Life anb Times of Silas Wright. 

and, until Congress interposed, were subject to the treatment 
Avhich those officei-s should choose to extend toward defaulting 
debtors. Did they meet a spirit of hostility ? Was a warlike 
course of measures adopted ? Did they find a disposition to exter- 
minate manifested in the lenity and forbearance extended, cer- 
tainly without law, if not against law ? No such charge or pre- 
tense, from the parties interested, has reached the committee, 
and certain it is that no foundation for either exists in the true 
history of the events. 

" Next in the order of time came the message of the President, 
communicated to Congress at the commencement of the extra 
session, and in this, and the annual message of December last, 
are supposed to be found recommendations by which to sustain 
this charge of hostility against the State banks. 

" What are these recommendations in substance ? As the com- 
mittee recollect and understand them, they are that the connec- 
tion which had existed between the government and the State 
banks for the time, to the extent and in the manner before 
related, which had become dissolved by the action of the banks 
themselves and which had proved so disastrous to both during 
its continuance, should not be renewed; that thereafter the 
money of the people should be kept and disbursed by the ser- 
vants of the people, and not by the ofiicers of private incorpora- 
tions; in short, that a system for the management of the finances 
of the country, substantially similar to that forced uj^on the gov- 
ernment by the suspension of the banks, should be adopted. 
What, then, is that system ? The committee believe they can 
answer truly that, so far as the State banks are concerned, it is a 
system in its general outline and action very similar to that 
prescribed and practiced upon by the Bank of the United States, 
ameliorated by the absence of that fearful rivalship in the busi- 
ness of banking which constituted the most prominent feature of 
that overshadowing institution; ameliorated in some other, to 
State institutions, important features, and merely transferring the 
agency for the treasury from an incorporated bank to public oifi- 
cers selected and appointed according to the provisions of the 
Constitution and the law, and responsible to the people and the 
regularly constituted tribunals of the country for their faithful- 



Life and Times of Silas Wuiaiir. 707 

ness in their tmsts. A very brief analysis of the I wo HVHteiim, 
comparing the one with tlie other at eaeli slep uf 1 lir piuccsH, 
will illustrate this position of the. eoniinittce. 

"The system recommended by the President proposes to nv^k^^ 
public officers, at the points required, the liscal ai,'eiils of the trea- 
sury, and not the State banks. 

"The charter of the Bank of the United States niadt- il uu.! itn 
branches the fiscal agents of the treasury, and not the Stale 
banks. 

"The system recommended by the Prcsidi^nt proposes that tlio 
public officers to whom the duty shall be assigned l»y law sliall 
be the depositaries of the public money, and shall receive, keep 
and disburse the same, and not the State banks. 

" The charter of the bank made it and its branches tiie deposi- 
tories of the public money and the agents of the treasury to 
receive, keep and disburse the san\e, and not the State banks. 

"The system recommended l)y the President neces.sarily 
excludes all use of the public money and all business by the 
fiscal agents of the treasury which can come in competition with 
the business of the State banks. 

"The system established in and under the bank create«l 
expressly a competitor too powerful for the State banks with- 
out any portion of the public patronage, and then threw into its 
lap the whole pecuniary patronage of the government, thus plac- 
ing the State banks entirely at its mercy. 

" The system recommended by the President does not propose 
so to legalize any bank-notes as a currency as to make them a 
tender in payment of debts at the treasury. 

"The charter of the bank made all its notes 'payable on 
demand' a tender in payment of debts at the treasury, but did 
not give that preference to similar notes of the State banks. 

" The operation of the system recommended by the President 
would be to disburse, in payments to the public creditors, any 
notes of the State banks which should at any time be allowed to 
be received, and the disbursement of which the existing laws and 
the choice secured to creditors should authorize. 

"The practice of the bank was to disburse no bank-notes but 
its own, and to present all the State bank-,>otos it received in 



7G8 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

payment of the revenue, at least once in every week, to be 
redeemed with specie; and to receive no State bank-notes in such 
payments except those of the banks located at the places where 
the bank and its branches were located. 

"These points of comparison might be carried further, but the 
committee trust the above are sufficient for their purpose. The 
charge they are considering is that of hostility on the part of the 
government against the State banks, as drawn from the recom- 
mendations of the President. These recommendations have, 
under the imposing appellation of the ' sub-treasury scheme,' 
been made to occupy a large share of the attention of the coun- 
try, and to excite the deep alarm of a great proportion of those 
interested in the State banking institutions. It is not to be dis- 
guised that the strongest charges of hostility have come from 
those who are friendly to the system of a national bank for the 
management of our finances; and hence the committee have 
believed it fair to institute this comparison, so far as the influ- 
ence of either upon the State banks is concerned, between that 
and the system recommended by the President. Can the friends 
of the former claim a superiority for their system in the benefits 
conferred upon the local banking institutions ? Can they claim 
superior exemptions from the checks and deprivations which 
those institutions are to experience under either system? Let 
the comparison answer. 

"In reference to any benefits anticipated from financial agen- 
cies proceeding from the treasury, both systems are equal to the 
State banks. Both deprive them wholly of those benefits. 

" In reference to the benefits derived from the deposit and use 
of the public money, both systems are equal to the State banks, 
for both deprive them of those benefits. 

" In reference to the embarrassments proceeding from compe- 
tition, the system recommended by the President is wholly favor- 
able to the State banks. It constitutes no rival and prevents all 
rivalship growing out of an exclusive use of the public money. 
The national bank system has for its principal object the creation 
of a commanding and an all-powerful rival, and proposes to give 
it the sole and exclusive benefit of the use of the public money. 

" In reference to the benefits derivable from a bank circulation 



Life and Times of Silas Win out. 



7(10 



growing out of the management of the public iinan.-.s, tho sy«tcm 
recommended by the President is also wholly favorable to il.o 
State institutions, as compared with the other. If „o b:iiik-nof,.H 
be received in payment of the public revenue <.r .lisbursnl to tl... 
public creditors under this system, it will tli.n be exactly equal 
in its operation upon the State banks with the national bank syH- 
tem; as, while the notes of the bank, under the latter system, are 
to be made a legal tender in payment of the public revenue, 'it is 
to receive in such payments the notes of no State banks which 
are not at its door and cannot be presented ' at least once in 
every week' to be redeemed with specie, a nominal favor which 
can be of no practical value, and may, at periods of embarrass- 
ment, be a serious injury to the State banks whose notes are 
received for such a purpose. So far as disbursements are con- 
cerned the two systems must, upon this hypothesis, be always 
equal to the State banks. If, however, Congress shall permit, to 
any extent or for any period of time, the receipt or disbursement, 
or both, of bank-notes in the management of the public revenues, 
the State banks, under the system recommended by the President, 
would have all the benefits to be derived from such permission ; 
while the whole benefits would be exclusively confined to the 
national bank under that system, the disbursements being always 
confined to its own notes. 

"Is the government, then, justly chargeable with hostility to 
the State banks, because the President has recommended such a 
system of finance for the approbation of Congress ? Can such a 
charge come with propriety from the friends of a national bank ? 
The State institutions survived and prospered under the national 
bank system. Surely, then, under one so very similar in many 
of its features, and so greatly ameliorated in others so far as its 
action upon them is concerned, they cannot be exterminated; nor 
can it be said with reason or fairness that a system so ameliorated 
toward them has been devised for their destruction or recom- 
mended from an unfriendly spirit toward them. 

"What is required at the hands of Congress to rebut this 

unfounded presumption of hostility? To make the notes of the 

eight or nine hundred banks of the country a legal tender so fast 

as those banks shall resume specie payments. Sweeping remedy, 

49 



770 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

truly, for an imaginary disease ! The Congress of the United 
States is asked to change its whole policy, to abandon the hope 
of extending and rendering stable and firm a specie basis for the 
paper currency of the country, to throw away the occasion now 
offered when coin is flowing into our ports, and to adopt and 
legalize bank pajjer as the standard of currency for the national 
treasury — and for what? Simply to rebut the suspicion that 
the government is hostile to the banks. 

" It may be said that the passage of this clause of the resolu- 
tion is not made desirable by this cause singly, but that the 
inducement it will hold out to the banks to resume specie pay- 
ments renders its passage proper and expedient. That a return 
to specie payments by the State banks is desirable and important 
to every interest, public and private, the committee know and 
feel; but can it be safe or proper for Congress to pass a law 
which, so far as its action can go, shall make the currency of the 
country exclusively paper, as an inducement to the banks to pay 
specie — or rather to agree to pay specie — when specie will be 
no longer demanded? Is it incumbent upon Congress so to 
legislate as necessarily to drive all specie from the country, by 
interposing a legal substitute of bank paper, as a means of ena- 
bling the banks to pay specie? Will the Senate go further in 
holding out inducements to produce a return to specie payments, 
by way of indorsing the paper of the banks, than the States 
which have created them will consent to go? The committee 
believe that some of the States have made the notes of such of 
their banks receivable, by law, at the State treasury, as are 
owned in part or principally by the State itself; thus doing in 
this respect what Congress did do in reference to the two Banks 
of the United States. But it is not believed that any State has 
made the notes of its banks in which the State has no interest a 
legal tender in payment of debts due to itself, and yet most of 
the States have legislated with express reference to their banking 
institutions since the suspension of specie payments in May, 1837. 

"Another argument urged for the adoption of this provision is, 
that the times require the extension of unusual favor toward the 
banks. The committee have reviewed the condition of our mone- 
tary affairs in 1816, immediately after the close of the late war 



Life and Times of ISilas W uhnii. 771 

with Great Britain, and also the extreme in.lul-..,,,-.. whirl, l',>„. 
gress couki then be brought to exteii.l tc tlic Sl:ih. hanks „f thai 
day; and will it be pretended that the State .hanks nnu ,,r,s.„i 
stronger claims upon the patronage and favor ami iu.lulgi.nee ..f 
this government than did those of 18 ic,? There is a wi,|r a... I 
marked difference in the relations existing between ih.- gMV.Tii- 
ment of the United States and the banks in 181(5 and at the pres- 
ent time. Then the principal embarrassments of the banks were 
brought upon them by their advances to tlie government to assist 
it through the war, which money the government cotdd nut pay. 
Now, the principal embarrassments of the government are 
brought upon it by having advanced money to the banks for 
safe-keeping, which they cannot pay. Still, in 181U, if the con- 
struction of the resolution of that year, as given by the commit- 
tee, be correct. Congress would only permit the reception of tlie 
notes of the banks at the treasury, at the option of the fiscal 
officers of the government, after they should have resumed spe- 
cie payment. If Congress is not disposed to go further now to 
favor the banks than it went then, it is sufficient to say that the 
resolution then passed is still in force, and as applicable to bank- 
ing institutions now as it was then if they will bring themselves 
within its provisions; and to allay all cause of apprehension uj)on 
the subject, either as to the understanding of the collecting offi- 
cers of the government or as to the exercise of their discretion 
under that resolution, it is proper to state tliat information hab 
already reached this city that, in a few commercial towns where 
a resumption is known to have taken place, the notes of the 
resuming banks are freely received in ijayment of duties, post- 
ages and all other public dues. 

"Is it desirable, for any purpose, that a wider circulation 
should be given to the notes of these specie-paying banks by the 
action of this government; that they should be made a legal ten- 
der in the payment of debts to the United States in all parts .'f 
the Union? The committee think this is not desirable an<l 
would not be useful to the banks themselves, and they are cer- 
tain it would be eminently hazardous to the treasury to give 
them that currency. It would almost certainly lead again to 
dangerous expansions on the part of the banks, and to a repeti- 



772 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

tion of the present scenes of revulsion, contraction and depres- 
sion; and were these scenes again to be repeated, and under such 
a law, the government might not escape as it has lately done. 

" Take an instance as an illustration. Suppose the resumption 
to have become perfect, and that the banks are all reinstated in 
the public confidence, and are all believed to be ' sound.' The 
provision of the resolution then acts upon their notes with the 
force of law, and compels their receipt in all payments to the 
United States. Some one, among the whole number, gets into 
the hands of bad and unprincipled managers, and its powers are 
employed in the jjurchase of the public lands. Nothing is to be 
done but to fill up and sign a sufiicient amount of its notes, and 
present them simultaneously at the various land ofiices, and, 
before the fraud can be discovered or counteracted, any quantity 
of the public domain may be received in exchange for the paper, 
even to the last acre open for sale. This, the committee are 
aware, is supposing an extreme case ; but it is by presenting such 
to the mind, that the facility with which frauds may be practiced, 
similar in character but less in extent, is made apparent. And 
so extensive is the public domain, and so numerous the banks 
whose notes are to be made a legal tender in payment for them, 
that all must see the strongest grounds for apprehension under 
such a system. In the other great branch of the public revenue, 
the customs, frauds of this character cannot be practiced but by 
the aid of so much real capital as to afford a very safe protection 
against them. The goods must be purchased in foreign countries, 
where capital or solid credit only will procure them, and the 
paper will merely pay the duties; while in the purchase of the 
lands there is no other limit than the quantity of the paper made 
a legal tender, or the quantity of the lands in the market. 

" In every aspect in which the committee have been able to 
view this subject they see nothing but evil likely to follow from 
the passage of this part of the resolution ; evil to the treasury, 
evil to the currency generally, and evil to the banks themselves. 
They therefore most earnestly hope it may not receive the appro- 
bation of Congress. 

" The third clause of the resolution, compelling the disburse- 
ment of the bank-notes, is in the following words : 



Life and Times of Silas Win, hit. 77:^ 

" ' And (the bank-notes made receivable iihd received) sliall bo suhHcqucnlly 
disbursed, in a course of public expeiuliUue, to all public crodilorH who arc 
willing to receive them.' 

"This part of the resolution has, at least, tlic mcrir d" 1,,'iiit,' 
new, and is not, like both the other [lortious, a repetition of any 
previous action of tlie Senate during its present session. So I'.ir 
as the observation of the committee has extendetl, it can ciaiin 
greater novelty, as they have not fonnd any previous proposition 
made to Congress to compel the disburse)) lent of bank-nf)les in 
payment of the public dues. On the contrary, they have fouml 
numerous propositions and several laws to restrain, limit, and 
even prohibit disbursements in such a medium. 

"If the former clause of the resolution should be rejected, the 
committee suppose this would fall with it, as they are not pre- 
pared to expect that any will urge a compulsory provision for 
making the public disbursements in bank paper more broad tlian 
the provisions of law for the reception of the same paper. Sucli 
is not the character of the proposition, as it stands in the resolu- 
tion, and the Senate will not certainly be inclined, by any action 
on its part, to give it that character. 

"Upon the supposition, however, that both of the clauses 
should pass, and become a part of the law regulating the collec- 
tion and disbursement of the public revenue, the action of the 
latter upon the treasury and the public disbursements deserves 
some notice. 

" If the committee understand the fair construction and cfTect 
of this last clause, it would be a positive prohibition upon the 
fiscal officers against presenting for payment in coin, at the bank 
which issued it, any bank-note, received in conformity with tlie 
requirements of the second clause, until that note had been first 
offered in payment to some public creditor, and that creditor had 
refused, or expressed his unwillingness to receive it. If this be 
the true construction of the provision, and the committee are 
unable to discover how the terms used, and the connection in 
which they are used, can admit of any other, then it appears to 
them that the inconvenient consequences they will proceed to 
name must follow. 

" Take the disbursements in our Indian department, and sup- 



774 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

pose the revenue to be disbursed is paid in bank paper, as it will 
be very certain to be when all the bank paper of the country shall 
be made a tender in payment of debts at the treasury. The annui- 
ties are to be paid to the Indians residing in the Indian territory 
west of the Mississippi. The means of payment consist of that 
variety of bank paper which would, under such a system of 
finance, compose the ordinary receipts at the treasury. The 
agent, to make the payment, must take the paper, go to the 
Indian country, offer his bank paper to the proper individuals of 
each tribe or band, meet their refusal to receive it, as he certainly 
would if the Indians were left free to act, and then do what ? 
Either return to the settlements and sell the notes for the best 
price they will command in coin, or seek out among the States 
the various banks whose notes he holds, present them at their 
counters for payment in coin, and make a second journey to the 
Indian territory. 

" Take, again, the disbursements to the army. The principal 
part of it is always at remote frontier stations. The funds to 
pay the troops are, like all the other revenues, collected in indis- 
criminate bank paper. The paymaster is fitted out as was the 
Indian agent, in the supposed case, and, were the soldier to have 
really his free choice, would be quite as certain to meet with the 
same refusal to receive the paper. In that event his course 
would, from necessity, be the same which has been pointed out 
for the agent. 

" Take the disbursements in the naval service, and how are a 
portion of them to be made, without an actual violation of the 
spirit of this provision ? At the navy yard, upon the vessels in 
port, and the like, the notes might be offered or paid, as in the 
former cases, but they certainly could not be transported, as 
means, abroad to sustain the vessel and crew upon a foreign sta- 
tion, and the necessity of the case would compel the fiscal officers 
to presume a refusal, to enable them to convert the notes into 
current means. 

" These are but a few of the vast number of cases where simi- 
lar difficulties would be met with; and, under those which have 
been enumerated, how much freedom of choice is it likely would 
be left to the public creditors ? Take the Indian, and who does 



Life and Times of Su.as Wuhiiir. 



I I .i 



not know that tlie agent, situated as in ilio siipposeil cumc, wmiM 
give him at once to understand tluil he „/>/sf t.ikc lli.- papiT, ..r 
wait his (the agent's) pleasure for the specie? An.l who d.H.« 
not also know that this, to the Indian's feelings aM<l wauls, would 
be equivalent to saying he nmst take the paper or iinihin-4, :iiid 
would speedily convert him into a public creditor, ipHU,,'/ /.* 
receive the paper ? 

"So with the soldier upon a remote station. His sni:dl wagt'S 
and numerous wants render the periodical rounds of the pavrnas- 
ter much less frequent than would be desirable to hiui, even if 
there be no question about liis pay when those periods arrive; 
but let the paymaster offer him l)ank-notes, ami tell him, if he 
decline to take them, he must wait until it shall lie his (the pav- 
master's) duty to visit the post again, and how will he choose, 
or, rather, what choice will he have? The coiiipiiKinii of debts 
and want must decide the question, and he too become a public 
creditor, willing to take the paper. 

" So with the sailor, with the laborers at the navy yards, and 
indeed in all branches of the public service. Let the true test be 
applied. Let the paying agents be sent with gold or silver and 
paper. Let them offer each, and ask for the choice, and then 
these public creditors, the classes most strongly appealing to 
Congress for protection, will be free to choose. And who doubts 
how they will choose under such eii-cumstances? The large 
creditors, the banks, the merchants and the principal contractors, 
may have the choice under such disbursing regulations, because 
they may have the means and ability to wait until the conse- 
quences of their refusal to take the paper can be obviated by its 
conversion; but to them this choice is of little moment in the 
comparison, as they are engaged in business, and located at 
points where the paper, if really that of sound specie-paying 
banks, may be converted into coin by themselves without maten 
rial delay or loss. They, too, are judges of the paper, and .-an 
gain the required information as to the soundness of the banks, 
and may therefore make their selections from the paper offere.l. 
Not so the Indian in the wilderness, the soldier at tlie frontier 
post, the sailor in service, or the common laborers upon the public 
works, and hence they can have no choice, in fact, unless the gold 



776 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

or silver be presented to them, with the paper, and they be per- 
mitted to make the choice between them on the spot. This pro- 
vision, as to them, would, in the judgment of the committee, 
operate to make the paper a tender in payment of their dues 
from the government; a forced tender it is true, but none the less 
a tender in practice. 

"If the construction which the committee give to this pro- 
vision be correct, it must have the following dangerous operation 
upon the treasury: The paper cannot be converted into coin 
until it has been offered to a public creditor and declined. If, 
then, the receipts into the treasury be more than are required for 
disbursement, it would seem to be a necessary consequence that 
the excess, whatever it may be, and by whomsoever kept, must 
be kej)t in bank-notes. It cannot be offered to a public creditor, 
because there is no public creditor, in the supposed case, to whom 
to offer it. It is an excess beyond the amount of money required 
for the payment of all the public creditors. In this respect, the 
provision will have the effect to repeal the second article of the 
fourth section of the dejjosit law of 1836, so far as credits to the 
Treasurer of the United States are concerned, in case the banks 
are to be again made the de]30sitories of the public money. This 
section prescribes the terms upon which the banks are to reeeive 
the public money, and the first clause of the second article is in 
these words: 

"Secondly. '7b credit as specie all sums deposited therein to 
the credit of the Treasurer of the United States,^ etc. ; and it would 
surely be a contradiction to require that to be credited ' as specie ' 
which the law requires should be kept and disbursed in paper. 
The effect upon the treasury and the banks of requiring the 
revenues, and especially such surpluses as may from time to time 
exist, to be kept in paper, is too palpable to make it the duty of 
the committee to comment upon it. The risk to the jjublic funds 
would be that which exists between laying up for preservation 
specie and bank-notes, and the necessary effect upon the banks 
would be to induce an expansion equal to the amount of their 
notes known to be locked up for safe-keeping in the depositories 
of the government. 

" This provision of the resolution, also, if passed, must repeal 



Life and Times of ;S/las Wiciuut. 



I t I 



the second section of the act entitled 'An :ict, makiiiL,' apprcpriii- 
tions for the payment of Revohitioiiaiy and oihrr |).n,sionoiH <>i 
the United States, for the year one thousand uij^ht Imn.ln'.l an. I 
thirty-six,' passed on the 14th day of April, is.ft;. TluiL 80(;ii<»i» 
is in the words following: 

"'Sec. 2. And be it fartJuT enacted, That, hereafler, no bank-note of u 1cm 
denomination than ten dollars, and tliat tVoni and after tlio lliinl day of 
March, Anno Domini eighteen hundred and thirty-seven, no l)anknotf of u 
less denomination than twenty dollars, shall be oll'tTcd in payment, in any 
case whatsoever in which money is to be i)aid by the United Slates or ihe 
Post-office department; nor shall any bank-note, of any denomination, l)c 
so offered, unless the same shall be payable, and paid on demand, in gold or 
silver coin, at the place where issued, and which sliall not be equivalent to 
specie at the place where offered, and convertible into gold or silver upon 
the spot, at the will of the holder, and without delay or loss to him; pro- 
vided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to make anythiii;,' but 
gold or silver a legal tender by any individual, or by the United Slates.' 

"If the second and third clauses of the resolution be read 
together, and the connection between them marked, it will be 
seen that the third must be understood to require the disburse- 
ment of any bank-notes which the second permits to be received. 
The last clause of the fifth section of the deposit law of 183G 
prohibits the receipt, in the collection of the revenue, of any bank- 
note of a less denomination than five dollars. It may, perhaps, be 
fairly questioned whether the second clause of the resolution should 
not be so construed as to repeal this prohibition of the deposit 
law, and compel the receipt of all notes, of any denomination, 
which any ' sound bank ' shall issue and make payable, and pay 
on demand, in the legal currency of the United States; but, with- 
out raising that question, that clause undoubtedly authorizes and 
compels the receipt of all notes of denominations not prohibited 
by that section of the deposit act, and consequently the third 
clause must repeal the first part of the section above quoted from 
the pension act, confining the disbursements to notes of higher 
denominations. The second provision of that section cannot 
stand, because this third clause of the resolution compels the 
offering of bank-notes, at all places, and in payment of all public 
creditors, without regard to the limitations there imposed and 
prescribed. This covers and repeals the whole section, except 
the proviso ; and besides the consideration that it falls with the 



778 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

section, if the views entertained by the committee, as before 
expressed, be cori-ect, this resolution will so operate as to make 
bank-notes, in effect, ' a legal tender ' by as well as to the 
' United States.' 

" The committee will close this i-eport by saying that, up to 
this time. Congress has seemed to suppose that the tendency to 
use bank paper in payments from the United States was suffi- 
ciently strong, without either its encouragement or compulsion ; 
and that the safety of the public treasure, and the necessities as 
well as convenience of the public disbursements, required that 
the Treasurer and his fiscal agents should have the power, at 
pleasure, to convert the bank-notes received in the collections of 
the public revenue into coin. This has ever been the power pos- 
sessed by those officers, as well in reference to the notes of the 
two Banks of the United States, the receipt of which at the trea- 
sury was compulsory, as to the notes of the State banks, the 
receipt of which was merely permissive. Hence the Bank of the 
United States adopted and pursued the system of converting into 
coin, ' at least once every week,' all the notes of State banks 
received by it in payments of the revenue of the United States. 
This practice was approved and applauded in that bank, as add- 
ing to the security of the public treasure and imposing a health- 
ful and salutary check upon the local banks. Will not the same 
good results follow from a precisely similar practice on the part 
of the Treasurer of the United States, and any other fiscal agents 
of the treasury which the law may appoint ? Can the same act, 
performed by a national bank, be useful and salutary, and, per- 
formed by an officer of the government, be evil and mischievous, 
and require interdiction by law ? Would the public treasure, in 
the shape of State bank-notes, be unsafe in the keeping of a 
national bank, and therefore require the weekly conversion of 
those notes into coin ? And will that same treasure, in the same 
shape, be safe in the keeping of the State banks themselves, or 
in that of public officers, so as to require a prohibition against 
its conversion to coin, and to force its disbursement in paper in 
payment of the debts of the government ? These questions seem 
to the committee to admit of but one answer, and that answer, 
in substance, is, that this part of the resolution ought not to 
become a law." 



Life and Times of ;^jlas W uuiut, 77^ 



Chapter Lyyill. 

REPORT ON THE FINANCES OF THE (,;o\ EILN.ML.NT. 

The Senate, on the thirty-first of May, (lir.rt.,1 i)i.> 
Committee on Finance to take into considmiiKMi ciitnin 
provisions of the deposit act of 1836, mid iv|Mirt tlinvon. 
That committee, by Mr. Weight, its chainiiaii. mad.- tli.5 
following report on the 8th of Jnne, 1888 : 

" The Committee on Finance, to wliidi was refer ri'd the reso- 
lution of the Senate of the thirty-lirst iiltiino, directing certain 
inquiries as to various provisions of an act entitled 'An ai-t to 
regulate the deposits of the public money,' passed on the '_':ul 
day of June, 183G, respectfully report : 

" The resolution instructs the connnittee ' to take into considera- 
tion the act of the 23d of June, 1836, entitled "An act to regn- 
late the deposits of the public money," ' and to make inquiry upon 
these points, viz.: 

" ' First. Whether, according to the provisions of that act, it is now com- 
petent for the Secretary of the Treasury to employ any bank which has 
heretofore been selected as a public depository, and whicli, since the passage 
of that act, has suspended specie payments.' 

" The committee have examined the act with attention, and 
find that, all other objections being obviated, it is competent for 
the Secretary of the Treasury to employ, as a public depository, 
any bank which has heretofore been selected for that service, 
'and which, since the passage of that act, has suspended specie 
payments.' The eighth section of the deposit act prohibits the 
Secretary of the Treasury from discontinuing any deposit bank, 
and from withdrawing the public money therefrom, e.xcept for 
certain enumerated causes, one of which is in the following words: 

" ' Or if any of said banks shall, at any time, refuse to pay its own notes 
in specie, if demanded.' 

"Upon this cause being presented, it is made the express duty 



780 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

of the Secretary, by the same section of the act, ' to discontinue 
any such bank as a depository, and withdraw from it the public 
moneys which it may hold on deposit at the time of such discon- 
tinuance ; ' but when the bank shall have again resumed specie 
payments, nothing is found in this language to interdict its rese- 
lection as a public depository. 

" The fourth section of the act sets out the terms and condi- 
tions upon which the banks shall agree to receive the public 
moneys before they shall be employed as depositories. The second 
of these terms is prescribed in the following words : 

' ' ' Secondly. To credit as specie all sums deposited therein to the credit 
of the Treasurer of the United States, and to pay all checks, warrants or 
drafts, drawn on such deposits, in specie, if required by the holder thereof.' 

"The breach of this condition on the part of the bank would 
be a refusal to pay its depositors in specie, and consequently a 
suspension, to that extent, of specie payments; and the duty of 
the Secretary of the Treasury to discontinue it as a depository 
and to withdraw the public money from it would become impera- 
tive by the language of the eighth section, before referred to, 
which assigns, as another cause of discontinuance and withdrawal, 
that ' at any time any one of said banks shall fail or refuse to per- 
form any of said duties, as prescribed by this act and stipulated 
to be performed by its contract.' 

"This contingency, therefore, like the former, would take from 
the bank its character as a depository for the time being, would 
forfeit the existing contract and render its discontinuance and 
the withdrawal of the public money from it an imperious duty; 
but the committee see nothing in either of the causes to prevent 
a second contract with the same bank when it should again 
resume specie payments, again consent ' to pay its own notes in 
specie, if demanded,' and again ' pay all checks, warrants or 
drafts drawn on the public deposits in specie, if required by the 
holders thereof.' They find no provision in any other part of the 
act interdicting a second contract with the same bank, when the 
first shall have been terminated for either of these causes, and 
they therefore express their opinion that 'it is now competent 
for the Secretary of the Treasury to employ any bank which has 
heretofore been selected as a public depository, and which, since 



Life anjj Times of ;Sil.\s II/.-/,; 



///■. 



781 



the passage of that act, luis susjKn.h ,1 sjn-cic j.av 

bemg no other obstacle in the way of such sccuiia iMui.loy.ncnt 

than the act of suspension of specie paynieiils. 

"The next point to which the resulmiu,, directs the iii-iuiry .,f 
the committee is in the following words- 

'"■Second. Or which has, since the 4th day of July, 1830, iKiid oiil iioles 
or bills of a less deuominatiou than five dollars.' 

" To cause the inquiry to be clearly understood it is necessary 
to connect the preceding language with the words above (iu<»tfd, 
and the inquiry will be ^ohether, according to the j»-ovisionn <>/ 
thai act (the deposit law of 1836), it is now coinpetcnt /nr (he 
Secretary of the Treasury to employ any bank which has, since 
the ith day of July., 1836, paid out notes or bills of a less denomi- 
nation than five dollars. 

"In answer to this inquiry, the committee liiid \\\v two tir.st 
clauses of the fifth section of the act to be in the following 
words: 

" ' Sec. 5. And he it further enacted. That no bank shall be selected or con 
tinued, as a place of deposit of the public money, which shall not redeem 
its notes and bills, on demand, in specie; nor shall any bank be selected or 
continued, as aforesaid, which shall, after the fourth day of July, in the 
year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, issue or pay out any note or 
bill of a less denomination than live dollars.' 

"The last of these clauses meets and answers the inquiry 
directly, and shows that it is not competent for the Secretary of 
the Treasury, under this act, now to employ as a public depository 
any bank which has, since the 4th day of July, 1836, either issutd 
or paid out notes or bills of a less denomination than five dollars; 
while the first clause interdicts the selection or continuance, at 
any time and under any circumstances, of any bank 'which siiall 
not redeem its notes and bills, on demand, in specie.' 

"These two points of the inquiry seem to the committee to 
assume the expediency of a course of legislation wiiich shall 
revive and introduce again into practice the deposit system 
established by the act of 1836, as the system upon which tho 
public money is to be kept and disbursed. Under this supposi- 
tion, the opinion of the committee as to the first inquiry d.^s nut 
indicate the necessity of further legislation; while the plain and 



782 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

unquestioned construction of the act as to the second compels an 
answer which, to the minds of those who desire the reintroduc- 
tion of that system, may seem to point out such a necessity. 

"Not so with the majority of the committee. While left by 
the Senate to the free exercise of their own opinions, they carniot 
recommend any legislation the effect of which will be to reunite 
the public treasury and the banks, by a return of the public 
treasure to the uses of banking ; to stimulate and compel the 
banks to discount upon the public money, by exacting from them 
an interest for its use ; to promote an expansion in the paper 
issues of the banks, exactly proportioned to the fertility of the 
public revenues, and a correspondent embarrassment of the pub- 
lic treasury, when a sterility of revenue shall call for the public 
money which has passed into the hands of the customers of the 
banks. Such, they believe, have been the effects of the system 
of deposits, the revival of which the resolution seems to contem- 
plate. That system compelled the deposit of all the public 
money in banks ; it placed it in those institutions upon general 
deposit, and thus made it, in fact and in law, the money of the 
banks and not the money of the people ; it not only held out an 
inducement to the banks to use the money for the purposes of 
discount and banking, but in this way gave them the right so to 
use it, in defiance of the popular will and of the public authori- 
ties ; it went further, and compelled them to convert it to some 
profitable employment, by demanding interest from them while 
it was in their keeping. Time and experience have shown the 
consequences of such a policy, and, were there no other reason, 
these consequences would forbid the committee from recommend- 
ing any legislation calculated or intended to revive that system. 

" The action of the Senate, however, appears to them equally 
to stand in the way of any such recommendation. A special 
convocation of Congress, in September last, was a necessity 
imposed by the failure of this system of deposits, and the embar- 
rassments to the public treasury thereby occasioned. Recom- 
mendations for the keeping and management of the public money, 
without the aid of the banks, and especially for a permanent 
separation between the treasure of the people and the business of 
banking, were then laid before Congress by the President. These 



Life and Times of Sieas \V/:/<;iir. 7s:J 

recommendations were deliberately ami dclinitn riy act.',! ii|...ii 
and adopted by the Senate, but failed (o ivccivc the a-^^Mit ..f the 
other branch of Congress. At llir .•..miiiciiccinciii ,,r ih,' |,rrsriit 
session the same reeoninHiHlatioiis, substantially, wm- rt'iicwcd 
and again the Senate lias, after long (idilKiat ion and d.'l.ai.-, 
adopted them, in the shape of a bill, and tlin- srwi tjicin i.. the 
House for its concurrence. If that bill shall heroine a law, ilic 
whole deposit system, recognized and legalized Iiy the .l.i.osii ad 
of 1836, will be superseded. Will the Senate, thm, by its own 
action, supersede its own bill? Will it, in [hr ai)sence of all 
information as to what may be the fate of that nieasnif in the 
co-ordinate branch of the Legislature, or rather with the know- 
ledge that it has not yet been considered there, send another iiill 
upon the same general subject, based up(»n adverse principles V 

"The committee can only repeat, what Iheylnive found it to 
be their dutj^ to say upon a kindred bi-anch of this subject, that 
whether such duplicate action, by the same legislative body, be 
consistent with established parliamentary law, with the economy 
of legislation, or with the uniformity of decisions which should 
characterize all deliberative bodies, are questions which properly 
address themselves to the Senate and not to them; but upon the 
merits of the propositions they must be permitted to feel entire 
confidence that no sufficient reasons for a change of opinion or 
action can be presented. 

" The remaining inquiry embraced in the resolution is in the 
following words : 

" ' Third. And also to inquire into the expediency of repealing or modi- 
fying those provisions of the said act which prohibit the receipt, in pay- 
ment of debts and dues to the United States, of the bills of all banks which 
issue bills of less denomination than five dollars.' 

"This inquiry relates to the last clause of the fifth section of 
the act, which reads as follows : 

" ' Nor shall the notes or bills of any bank be received, in payment ofany 
debt due to the United States, which shall, after the said fourth day of July, 
in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, issue any note or bill 
of a less denomination than live dollars.' 

"This provision of the law of 18MG was inserted in furtherance 
of a policy some years since adopted by Congress, as will be seen 



784 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

by the eighth section of the proposed rechaiter of the Bank of 
the United States of the year of 1832, which reserved to Con- 
gress the power, from and after the 3d of March, 1836, to pro- 
hibit that institution from issuing or circulating notes of a less 
denomination than tAventy dollars. That act did not become a 
law, but this feature of it met the approbation of the two Houses 
of Congress, while the objections of the then President to the bill 
made no mention of this provision as exceptionable in his mind. 
On the contrary, his whole policy, and all his recommendations 
in relation to the currency, after that date, and especially after 
the time when the power could have been exercised, favored the 
policy of this limitation. Various legislation of Congress, in the 
year 1836, distinctly indicated a determination to adhere to and 
carry out the policy, and, by limiting the circulation of bank-notes 
of the smaller denominations, to secure a currency of coin only 
for the minor transactions of business, for the payment of day 
laborers, for the change required in pecuniary dealings and the 
like ; and in this way, also, to give a more broad metallic basis to 
our whole paper circulation. Many of the States of the Union 
fell into the policy thus adopted and pursued by this government, 
and conformed their legislation to the object proposed. It seemed 
to be universally conceded that these two objects could only be 
secured by the exclusion of small bank-notes from ordinary cir- 
culation ; and all adopted the policy as wise and worthy of pur- 
suit. The powers of this government could effect little, as the 
paper circulation to be suppressed was that of the notes of banks 
existing by and acting under State authority; but what it could 
do was proposed to be done by the provision of the deposit law 
above quoted. As a more direct and much more efficient move- 
ment, a very general and vigorous effort was made by the States 
and the people to exclude from circulation bank-notes of a less 
denomination than five dollars; and several States, whose banks 
had, theretofore, been authorized to issue notes of the denomi 
nations of one, two and three dollars, took from them that 
authority, while the banks of several other States had either 
never possessed that authority or had been deprived of it at a 
previous period. The progress in this attempted reform of the 
currency was materially retarded by the fact that all the States 



Life and Times of /Silas Witwur. 7>s5 

did not enter into and act upon it, so as to restrain tlic issue <»f 
small notes by their banks, and that the Ijaiiks of tl„. |5riti«.h 
provinces upon our north-western boundary cuntiniicd t.» isHuu 
small notes, which found a more or less extended eirciilaiiiui in 
the contiguous States of the Union. Slill, the a«lv;mcf lowar.l 
an entire metallic circulation for all sums below livf duMars was 
as rapid as, in the tlien situation of the country and banks, coiild 
reasonably have been expected ; and additional States wen- tak- 
ing measures for the gradual exclusion of the small notes of their 
banks, when the suspension of specie payments, with very few 
exceptions, by all the banks of all the States, in -May, 18:}7, 
arrested the salutary improvement. 

"The suspension was, to everj"^ practical extent, pei-fect. Tlu> 
banks, as a general rule, did not pay specie upon any denomina- 
tion of their notes or to any class of their creditors. An 
unavoidable consequence followed. All the coin in circulation, 
the most of which had been put in circulation by the policy aiul 
measures before adverted to, was either gathered into the banks, 
not to be again given out for the circulating currency of the 
country, or was hoarded by private holders, to whose minds tlu' 
suspension had communicated a feeling allied to panic, incliiiiiiLj 
them to treasure up all they had which was money, precisely in nro- 
portion to the diminution of their confidence in the value of that 
circulating medium which had, theretofore, represented money, 
but could not do so during the continuance of the entire suspen- 
sion of specie payments by the banks. Hence, either an absence 
of any medium for business transactions under five doHars, or 
the worst of all media which an enlightened publio feeling couUl 
tolerate, soon became, in many sections of the Union, an evd ot 
the first magnitude, and one against which the interference of 
the State Legislatures was comraandingly invoked, lii obedience 
to calls of this description from a suffering constituency, the 
Legislatures of several of the States, whicli had adopte-.l and 
prosecuted the policy of substituting the circulation of coin for 
that of small bank-notes in the minor pecuniary transactions 
of society, felt it to be their duty to retrograde in their action, 
and again to confer upon their banking institutions the power 
to issue and the right to circulate notes of the denominations 

50 



786 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

below five dollars. In some cases this change of policy, in 
the action of the States, has been made general and unlimited, 
while in others, as the committee think more wisely and fortu- 
nately, it has been made temporary, and adopted with an evident 
design not to abandon the policy, but to meet the particular 
grievance, and, that being obviated, to return to those sound 
measures which, as permanent regulations of law, cannot fail to 
have a most salutary influence upon our currency generally, and 
especially upon the interest of the poorer and by far the most 
numerous classes, in its soundness and reality. 

" Still the committee suppose that nearly all the banks in many 
entire States have, in obedience to and in conformity with this 
change of policy in the' legislative action of the States under 
whose authority they exist, violated the restriction imposed 
by the clause of the deposit 'law of 1836 last above quoted, and 
thus put it out of the power of the fiscal ofiicers of this govern- 
ment to receive any of their notes in any payment to the United 
States while that restriction remains in force and without modi- 
fication. Under such circumstances, the committee are not pre- 
pared to say that this provision should be so rigidly adhered to 
as to perpetuate the exclusion of the notes of these banks from 
the public receipts, while the notes of other banks, no more safe, 
are received. Such a rule would not aid the policy which the 
committee earnestly advocate of giving greater stability to our 
paper circulation, but would merely establish an invidious dis- 
crimination between the different local banking institutions, 
founded, so far as they can discover, upon no defensible principle. 
Had these violations of the restriction imposed by the deposit 
law been entirely voluntary on the part of the banks; had no 
suspension of specie payments, and no consequent derangement 
of the whole paper currency intervened, and, even under these 
pressing inducements, had not the interference of the Legislatures 
of the States authorized the violations, and, in some cases, at 
least, rendered the issue of the small notes almost, if not alto- 
gether, a duty in the estimation of the surrounding community, 
the committee would be the last persons to suggest even, much 
less to recommend, the remission of the penalty which this law 
of Congress imposes upon the act. 



Life and Times of Silas Wruhit. yyj 

"After what has been said, it will not bo expec-,tc<l that ilm 
committee will yield to ' the expediency of repealbn/ thoKo pro- 
visions of the said act which prohibit the receipt, in payment ..f 
debts and dues to the United States, of tli.^ hills ,,r :,ll Uuxk^ 
which issue bills of less denomination than live iluHars/ 'I'liin 
would be to yield the sound and salutary policy which th,. pro- 
visions were designed to carry out; one of the last things in the 
administration of the aflairs of this government wliich the com- 
mittee are disposed to surrender. While the bonofits of a sound 
and stable currency are so loudly demanded by all parties and all 
interests, and while the committee know and feel that a o-reater 
infusion of coin into the circulating medium of the country is 
the safest mode of reaching that great and good result, they can- 
not become parties, much less agents, in a course of legislation 
which shall surrender the first step toward a consummation so 
ardently desired by all. They, therefore, give their opinion 
against a repeal of this provision. 

"It remains to consider what modification can properly be 
adopted to meet the case and not weaken the great principle con- 
tended for. That, in the opinion of the committee, is a proj)osi- 
tion of easy solution. The legislation of several of the States, 
to which reference has been made, furnishes a precedent which 
Congress can safely follow. A postponement, so far, of the 
operative limitation of the provision, as to relieve the banks from 
the exclusion caused by former violations; the fixing of another 
day, beyond which, if they shall again cease to issue notes below 
the denomination of five dollars, their notes may not be received 
in payment of the public dues, will efi^ectually cure the evil com- 
plained of; place the excluded banks, so far as the legislation of 
Congress is concerned, upon the same footing with their neiglibor 
institutions, and preserve the policy of the law, in no other 
respect impaired than as to the time when that policy shall 
become practice. 

"The committee cannot, in justice to their own feelings, fail 
here to notice that many of the excluded banks have been among 
the first in the country to resume specie payments; that their 
issue of notes under the denomination of five dollars was a mea- 
sure believed, not by those interested in the banks simply, but 



788 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

by the community within which they are located, to be in direct 
aid of a speedy resumption by the institutions which made the 
issues ; and that the effect 6f those issues, under the circum- 
stances of the case and in the then condition of the currency, is 
still thought to have been salutary upon all interests, public and 
private. These are circumstances which, as it seems to the com- 
m.ittee, cannot escape the attention of Congress in deciding upon 
the propriety of the suggested modification of this provision of 
the deposit law of 1836. 

" Still, the question is one connecting itself with the general 
subject of legislation, covered by the bill upon which, as has been 
before remarked, the Senate has acted, during its present session, 
and which bill has been, long since, sent to the House of Repre- 
sentatives for the concurrence of that body. When that bill 
shall be acted upon, the committee believe that an amendment, 
to the effect they have suggested, will be proper and expedient ; 
and, as they have abundant evidence that the attention of that 
body has been repeatedly and expressly called to this particular 
point, they have no reason to doubt that it will receive the 
required modification there, in case the judgment of the House, 
upon the propriety of its adoption, shall agree with that which 
the committee entertain and express. 

" They believe it, therefore, inexpedient that any independent 
proposition to accomplish this object should, at the present time, 
be originated in or acted upon by the Senate. Should the bill 
referred to be rejected by the House, or should it be returned to 
the Senate without the amendment suggested, in either case the 
modification may be originated and passed as an independent 
bill, without material consumption of time, in relation to the 
business of this body, wdiile its adoption by the other, in the man- 
ner here suggested, will save the time and forms of independent 
legislative action. For these reasons the committee return the 
resolution to the Senate, without any proposition for the present 
action of the body upon any one of its suggestions." 

After a debate, in wliicli Messrs. "Webster, Norvell, 
Weight and Benton, took part, the report was ordered 
to be printed. 



Life and Times of Silas U i,-i,./rr. 7Hf) 

In this discussion Mr. Weight nuid.- ihr following 
remarks : 

"Mr. Wright observed thai he was not disposal i.. ,.\.-iio 
a debate on this matter, hut ln' cdiild ii,,t ili^diai-.^o. uli.ii lu- 
believed to be his duty and fail to reply t<> some of ih,. nniarks 
of the Senator from Massachusetts. What he had i.. sav would 
not be in reference to tlie proposition the gciitlenian liad '_;i\.ri 
notice of his intention to introduce, but in reCerence to u sort of 
surprise he expressed that a measure wliich he rei'errecl to, and 
which, having passed this body, had been sent to the other 
House and was there pending, would be taken uj) and acted on. 
The gentleman spoke of the taking up of this mi'asure and act- 
ing on it by the other House as something new and surprising. 
He knew, Mr. W. said, that there had been an attempt, vast and 
persevering in its character, to inculcate the heliel' throughout 
the country that this measure was ended for the present — or, to 
use the language of a gentleman on that floor, that it was ilead 
and buried. He was not able to contradict the allegation; hut 
he knew that when it was first made here he expressed his own 
dissent, and declared that he had never renounced the hope that 
the other branch of Congress would, l)efore the end of the ses- 
sion, consider and decide on that subject with which the feelings 
and interests of the country were so closely connected. He had 
therefore hoped that any movement respecting it would not have 
been represented here as altogether new atid surprising, lie 
knew of no expectations that an effort would be made here to 
consider that measure. He himself had no intention to make 
such an effort. He also knew that, by a large number, a disposi- 
tion had been entertained that it should iu)t be again considered 
in either House. But it was not right that it should bo rei>re- 
sented anywhere that that measure was ended and not again to 
be considered; that to take it up and act on it in the body in 
which it was pending was new and surprising. If such were the 
expectations of the Senator from Massachusetts, he had drawn 
them from a source not known to him, Mr. W. He could not 
consent to sit by while the Senator was making such allegations 
without expi-essing his dissent to them. Again, the Senator told 
them that within a few weeks the country was springing into 
new life, that prosperity was returning and business reviving, 



790 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

but that this administration had started up a measure which had 
thrown them back again. 

" We have seen that measure the subject of constant agitation 
and unreasonable anxiety, and yet they were told that it was 
dead and buried, and that the attempt to revive it would pro- 
duce alarm, embarrassment and distress. It was against such 
inferences that he was compelled to speak. He had heard it 
announced from the same quarter that, in consequence of the 
passage of a measure to which some importance was attached, a 
resumption of specie payments was soon to commence by the 
Bank of the United States, and that fact had been announced by 
their great ally himself. Was that ally to recede so soon from 
his purpose, and that, too, in consequence of the apprehended 
attempt of this administration to revive the independent treasury 
bill ? If this proclamation is not to be carried into effect, was it 
intended to lay the blame at our door? The Senator knew that 
all those who advocated and supported this inde^^eudent treasury 
bill here had never abandoned it, and he should not be surprised 
that they still advocate it, and represent them as bringing up as 
something new that which had been consigned to the tomb. He 
ought not to represent it as consigned to the tomb till it really 
is so. At present, said Mr. W., we do not agi-ee that it is, 

"Mr. Weight understood now the difference between the 
Senator and himself. It was not here, then, that the impi-ession 
existed that an attempt would not be made to take up the mea- 
sure pending in the other House, but the impression existed 
abroad. He di(i not know but that strong efforts had been 
made to produce that impression; but in a paper of the opposi- 
tion where he had seen it declared that the measure was dead 
and buried, and could not succeed, he had also seen the declara- 
tion that it would pass. Now he did not know but this last 
declaration was a better move than the other, or whether both 
were not made for the purpose of producing a conviction on the 
public mind unfavorable to the measure. But the Senator knew 
that when the vote to which he alluded was taken, in the other 
House, that the House was thin — that there were some twenty or 
thirty members absent. The Senator knew, also, as well as he 
did, that from that time to this there had been a strong contro- 
versy in the public mind as to what would be its ultimate fate." 



Life and Times of .^^ilas W innnr. 79] 



Chapter LXXIV. 

POSTPONEMENT OF THE FOURTH INSTALLMENT OF THE 

DISTIUBUTION. 

The first postponement of the fourth install m.-nf lUKh'r 
the distribution act was to the 1st of .Jumiury, \s\\\). 
Soon after the meeting of Congress, on the first Monday 
in December, 1838, the Secretary of the Treasury sent u 
communication to Congress on the subject of this install 
ment, which was referred to the Committee on Finaucf. 
As chairman of this committee, on the thirteenth of 
December, Mr. Weight made a report in favor (j[ an 
indefinite postponement. Mr. Clay desu-ed to amend the 
bill presented by Mr. Weight to postpone the paynuMit 
only to the 1st of January, 1840, upon which a discussion 
arose, in which Mr. Weight participated and said : 

" Mr. Weight observed that he was not then disposed to 
occupy the time of the Senate by discussing the subject of this 
bill. The committee had reported it with a view to the state of 
the treasury, as indicated by the Secretary iu liis annual rejiort. 
That exhibit showed that by the first of January there would he 
no monej^ in the treasury for the payment of this fourth install- 
ment, and there was no anticipation of that uthcer that there 
would be any moneys for the purpose by the first of January 
thereafter. The committee believed as he did, that the time had 
arrived when the treasury had parted with all the money that it 
could spare, and carry on the operations of the government, 
without calling on the States for the repayment of the in^-tall- 
ments they had already received. He knew of nothing wliich 
promised that the treasury would be able to spare this money by 
the 1st of January, 1840, and therefore must oppose the amend- 
ment. Having made this explanation, he would content himself 
with asking for the yeas and nays on the question. 



792 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" After a brief discussion of the subject Mr. Weight replied 
that it was BOt his intention now to enter into a discussion 
of the lamentable defalcations which had lately come to 
light. He had not the information to enable him to speak to 
that body intelligently on this subject. All he knew in regard 
to them was derived from glancing at the very voluminous 
report of the Secretaiy, which had been ordered to be printed, 
and which was not yet laid upon their tables. He was as much 
devoid of information on the subject as the Senator who last 
addressed them. But this much he would say, that if this matter 
was not thoroughly understood hj Congress and by the whole 
country, before the close of the session, it would not be his fault. 
It was his fixed purpose to have a thorough investigation of the 
whole subject, and to let his constituents know the whole truth. 
Then, as to the bill before them, it was not his purpose to liold 
out to the States expectations that he did not believe could be 
realized. In September last the Committee on Finance proj^osed 
the same postponement of this installment, and on the same terms 
that they now did. Vov himself, he thought that the time had 
gone by when they were authorized to hold out any expectations to 
the States from a surplus in the treasury, though, at the same time, 
he agreed that he had no power to look forward and say precisly 
what would be the condition of tlie treasury at the end of another 
year. He had no information which enabled him to say that this 
installment could be met on the 1st January, 1840, easier than it 
now could. 

" Mr. Wright, in reply to Mr. Clay and Mr. Tallmadge, said that 
with regard to the bill, the Committee on Finance, so far as he 
was aware, had, in reporting it, conformed to what they believed 
to be the views of a very large majority of the Senate. He 
would now frankly answer the question asked by the gentleman 
from Kentucky. If the bill, as reported, should be passed by 
that body, the gentleman must never expect him to vote for the 
payment of this fourth installment, should the question ever come 
up. He voted against the whole bill when it was first before 
them, and he was equally opposed to the principle that it con- 
tained now. Though he impeached the motives of no man who 
differed with him in opinion, he had changed no opinion that he 



Life and Times of ;Sii,.is (I /.7^• //■/•. 7((:{ 

held when the subject was firsL l>i'()iiL;lit IkI'.,!-,. iIhim, an. I, if 
called on to make this distrihutit)ii, lie iu\ cr could ^ivc Ids con- 
sent to do it. He hoped the Senator considered liinisclf answcrd • 
for, so far as lie Avas concerned, lie had L;i\cn liini an answer. 
He had remarked that the committee I'ell IpMuml, in niM.iiint,' 
this bill, to act with regard to the known opinions ol a majtiritv of 
that body; and he hoped that, so long as he continind a inember 
of it, they Avould always be disposed to frame llieir Idlls in con- 
formity with the known sense of liie body, so far as i heir sense 
of duty could conform to it. These were tlie feelings uliich liail 
always governed him; and it was in aecoivhuice willi tln-in that 
he had reported the bills of this and tlie hist session on the snb- 
ject before them. The Senate had changed ihe bill of the last 
session, and they could do so now. The Senator I'luni Kentucky 
asked, again and again, if they were alVaid to trust Congress. 
Why, if this bill passed as reported, would it not lie in the power 
of Congress to repeal it? Even if the bill passed, what was a 
law of Congress against Congress itself? IJut, said Mr. AV., wo 
propose to delay the payment at our own ]»leasure; and the terms 
of the amendment were to delay it till the 1st of January, is-io. 
Now, was there any one present who believed that there would be 
money in the treasury to pay this installment by that time? Not 
only was there no money to pay this installment now, but every 
one believed that there would not be any by the Isi of Jamiary, 
1840. This was the true state of the case, and on it In- was con- 
tented to rest the question," 

The debate closed on the seventeentli, and Mr. Chiy's 
proposed amendment was voted down by 26 to 17, nml 
the bill was ordered to be engrossed for a tliinl n-adiiig 
without a division. We find no record of any action of 
the House on the bill at this session. 



794 Life and Ti3ies of Silas Wright. 



Chapter LXXV. 

MR. RIVES' RESOLUTION. 

Those wlio took sides with the banks, against Mr. Van 
Buren's administration, made the management of our 
financial affairs the principal ground of objection. The 
popular belief was that Mr. Rives, of Virginia, and Mr. 
Tallmadge, of New York, among the leaders in this 
movement, had theu' jealousy excited by the marked 
exhibition of public favor manifested toward Col. Benton 
and Mr. Wright, and that they entered this paper-money 
by-path to get ahead of them ; but, instead of succeeding 
in doing so, wandered from the true path to wliich they 
intended to return, and became lost in the enemy' s coun- 
try, and, from the force of circumstances, entered into 
service with its combatants. They and others left the 
democratic ranks and joined the whigs, and fiercely 
fought those with whom they were once proud to 
serve. 

On the 19th of December, 1838, Mr. Rives introduced 
a resolution making a most extensive call upon the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury for information, useless for any 
purpose except to enable him to open his batteries upon 
the administration for not deserting democratic principles 
and conforming to those of the whig party. By the rules 
of the Senate, this resolution must be before it one day 
before it could be acted upon. On the next day it was 
considered and discussed, and agreed to without a formal 
division. Mr. Rives opened the debate in remarks assail- 
ing the administration and its friends. Mr. Weight 
responded in his usual calm, dignified and inoffensive 
manner : 



Life and Times of ISilas Wu/anr. 



7!r. 



"Mr. Wright said the Senate would notcxpccl l.iin to utu-.uj.i 
to reply to so elaborate a speech as that to which ihcy h:i.i j.i.t 
listened. He came to his seat with no expectuliun of .su.l, ;i 
debate. When the resolutions of the honorable Senator |M,-. 
Rives] were oflered yesterday, they excitod in hi. ,nin,| i,.. .-miici. 
pation that an elaborate and set discussion would be ontc-riHl upon 
at this stage of them. They were mere resolutions of inquiry. 
Their whole apparent object was to obtain facts, to h'lirn the 
truth of the matters to which they related, and he could not have 
expected a debate upon the merits until the testimony had bcuu 
obtained. 

"He should not, therefore, attempt to follow the gentleman in 
his extended remarks, or to reply to any part of his argunu-nt. 
It was his intention to occupy but a few moments of the time of 
the Senate, and to make but a few observations of an incidental 
character. 

" When the resolutions were offered, their object seemed to be 
fully and minutely expressed upon their face, and he was ghul 
the honorable Senator had come forward with them. The 
inquiries were such as he desired might be made and fully 
answered, but he could not have anticipated that conclusions 
would be drawn and expressed here, before the facts were known, 
or that a call for testimony would be made to follow a judgineni 
upon the issue. 

" He was as ignorant as the honorable Senator [3lr. Ifives] who 
bad spoken with so much warmth, and in terms of sucli strong 
censure, as to the nature, or character, or extent of the connection 
which had been formed between the public treasury and the 
Pennyslvania Bank, nor was the gentleman more desirous than 
himself that the truth as to that connection, whatever it might 
be, should be fully known; that all the facts should be exposed 
to the view of the whole country; that nothing should be hidden 
or concealed in relation to it. Hence he Avas pleased to see the 
resolutions, and should cheerfully vote for them. 

"It was true, he had learned, through the public prints, tliat 
the Secretary of the Treasury had, during the vacation, sold one 
of the bonds held against the Pennsylvania Bank of the United 
States, which, by a special law passed at the last session of Con- 



796 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

gress, he was expressly authorized to do. He had also heard 
through the same channel, and from the same authority, that the 
sale had been made to the bank itself, to the institution against 
which the bond was; but the information caused no surprise, no 
alarm, in his mind, because he supposed that the state of the 
treasury and the amount of appropriations by Congress were 
such as to require the sale of at least one of the bonds, to enable 
the department to pay the public creditors. Neither had the cir- 
cumstance that the sale had been made to Mr. Biddle's bank, to 
the institution which owed the debt, given him any apprehension, 
as he had been confiding enough to believe that the only offer or 
the best offer to purchase had come from that quarter, and that, 
for that simple reason, the Secretary had made the sale there. The 
law compelled the Secretary of the Treasury to get the best price 
he could command in the market for the bonds, in case he found 
it necessary to sell them, and prohibited him, in any event, from 
selling at a price below the par value of the bond. Mr. W. had 
been credulous enouoh to believe that the sale was made to the 
Pennsylvania Bank, because the law compelled the Secretary to 
sell to that institution, it making the only or the most advan- 
tageous offer for the bond placed in the market. It was possible 
he had been too confiding; but he had believed, when he first 
heard of the sale, that this was its explanation, and he had not 
now a doubt that such would prove to be the truth of the case, 
whenever the Secretary of the Treasury should have an opportu- 
nity to answer the inquiries of the Senator. 

" If the honorable gentleman did not entertain the same con- 
fidence in the executive officers of the government as himself, he 
could regret the fact, but it gave him no riglit to complain, nor 
did he complain that it was so; though, when the Senator had 
assumed to himself the character of an inquirer after the facts, 
and then had felt at liberty, before his inquiry was made, to 
draw inferences and pronounce conclusions of a highly censorious 
and condemnatory character, which inferences and conclusions 
could, with justice, only be drawn from the facts to be inquired 
after, he did feel and must express disappointment and regret. 
Had it been his case, whatever might have been his feelings 
toward the executive officers concerned, however much he might 



Life and Times of ;Sjlas Wukhit. '[)-; 

have distrusted their intelligence, or int. grit y, nr ojlicial r:iiil,r„|. 
ness, if he had i.rojiose.l to inqnirc and to call ii,m.ii ili.'in |.. 
answer, he wonld liave allowiMl tlum tlic o|,|h.ii imiiy to aiisw.-r, 
before he would either liavc ceiisurc'd or (•(.iMlnmicI ; ;ni.i |„. 
must say that it would have afforded him sincere gratiru-ation if 
the Senator from Virginia liad found it consistent with his fe.-l- 
ings and sense of duty to have jiursucd that in.nc jll^l and 
generous course. 

"At the opening of the lu)norable Senator's speech, .Mr. W. 
was led to suppose that an opportunity for sincere congratulation 
was to be afforded to himself and the majority of tlie Senate. 
They had long looked upon tlie (hmgers and miscliicfs attendant 
upon any connection between the treasury of the nation an.l 
banks of any character, as among the most serious anil alarming 
evils which had growii up under tlie admin is Ira lion of our repid)- 
lican system of government, while the Senator had, heretotore, 
but too successfully defended that connection. His early remarks 
seemed to present it now to his mind, charge.l with such liorrible 
and frightful consequences, that Mr. W. could not but sujipose 
that he and those with whom he had acted wcw^ again to have 
the powerful co-operation of the able Senator in i)reaking up 
and eradicating forever that unnatural, improper and vicious 
connection. In this, however, he had met hasty disappointment, 
as it seemed to be the connection with a single hank, and not a 
connection with banks generally, which had given the Senator 
his deep alarm, and drawn down ui)on the Secretary of the Trea- 
sury and the President his unmeasured censures. It was a con- 
nection with Mr. Biddle's bank, with the IVunsylvania I'.ank of 
the United States, which had thus aroused the Senator's eloquence 
and indignation. 

"Even here, however, Mr, W. found cause for earnest con- 
frratulation. He well remembered that, upon repeated occasions 
within the last two years, when he, and other friends who enter- 
tained opinions in accordance with his own, had made their 
feeble attempts to arouse the honorable Senator liimself, the 
Senate and the country to a sense of the dangers ami corrup- 
tions of that giant institution, they had been calndy and con- 
fidently told by the Senator, and others who then acted with 



798 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

him, that they were practicing an imposition upon the country; 
that they were attemj^ting to conjure u]:) the ghost of a buried 
enemy, a phantom, a mere shadow, to produce alarm and appre- 
hension; that the Bank of the United States, in any form of 
existence, was effectually destroyed, was dead and buried, never 
again to be disinterred to alarm or injure the people ; that our 
apprehensions were too late and were unreal. 

" Notwithstanding these repeated and positive assurances, 
which, coming from the sources they did, he always desired to 
consider friendly and sincere, Mr. W. had never for a moment 
permitted himself to be misled or deceived by them. There 
never had been a moment when he had considered the dangers 
from that institution at an end, or materially lessened. The 
change of its form, from a national to a State institution, con- 
nected with the facts which accompanied and characterized that 
change, had given no relief to his apprehensions, and they were 
now, at this moment, as lively and active and strong as they had 
ever been. 

" Not so with the honorable Senator. There had been a time 
when he had considered these dangers as not sleeping merely, 
but buried forever; and that he had now again become sensible 
of their existence, of their magnitude and of their impending- 
character, was a matter of just congratulation to Mr. W. If 
they could not agree about the banks generally, the Senatoi-'s 
speech of this day had proved that about this particular banking 
institution they did and could agree. Here again they could 
meet and unite their labors for the general benefit of the whole 
country. Not a man in these seats could have failed to feel the 
dangers and mischiefs of this great banking institution, as the 
Senator had so eloquently and forcibly and vividly depicted 
them. To Mr. W. the effort had not raised new apprehensions, 
but confirmed all former impressions; and he would now promise 
the Senator, and all others, his most anxious co-operation in any 
efforts finally and forever to remove the particular dangers so 
clearly pointed out, and all dangers to our republican institutions 
of a like character, come from what description of banking insti- 
tutions they might. He would repeat that he was entirely igno- 
rant of the connection now formed between the treasury and this 



Life and Times of Silas Wuiciit. 7<j() 

dangerous institution. He was willini^ and dcsin.ns i.. l.-t, the 
Secretary of the Treasury answer that inquiry. He l„.lir\ .d it. 
was only a connection growing out of the sah" of ilic Im.ihI Io 
which he had before referred, and growing out of tliat sair in 
the manner he had pointed out; that it was necessity, ai-ising 
from the law of Congress directing the sale, and not from thr 
choice of the executive officers. If it was any other or diirerent 
connection, he was further ready to say that it had been formed 
without his knowledge or consent, and should not nu'ct his 
approbation. Here he had been and was still willing to rest his 
comments upon this matter. 

"Neither the honorable Senator nor the body he addressed 
would expect him, upon an occasion like this, to go into a Gene- 
ral debate upon the independent treasury bill, or to follow the 
Senator through that large portion of his remarks. It liu.l 
appeared to him that the gentleman had, as he himself adiniucd, 
indulged extensively in the wide field of debate allowed by the 
courtesy of the Senate, in this part of his speech; but as Mr. W. 
had arisen to remark upon the spirit and temper of the speech, 
rather than to answer its argument in any aspect, he sliould be 
justified in passing this portion without notice. 

"There was another feature of the address, however, which 
fell more appropriately than any other within the limits h(; had 
jDrescribed for himself, and which must receive attention. It was 
the extraordinary position assumed by the Senator, that the politi- 
cal opinions of the President, and the course and policy of his 
administration, were to be interpreted and proved by a letter 
from Nicholas Biddle, voluntarily published in the newspapers 
of the coitntry. Was it upon such evidence that the President 
of the United States was to be judged and condemned ? Was 
his democracy and his attachment to republican principles to be 
tried by such a test ? Had his publicly expressed opinions, and 
the public course of his Avhole life, authorized a judgment against 
him upon such evidence ? Mr. W. had never yet seen the letter 
alluded to, but he had heard of it, and he now found the hoiioi-- 
able Senator a perfect master of its contents. All this was well, 
as a matter with Avhich he had nothing to do, and about whicli 
he felt no anxiety. All he wished to say was, that Ms friends 



800 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

were not to be bound by its terms, its language or its spirit, until 
they were made parties to it by some higher proof than the letter 
itself. He had never yet judged them by such a standard, nor 
should he ever do so, until they had been permitted to hear and 
answer the charges thus predicated. 

" Even this letter, however, had not answered the purposes of 
the honorable Senator, and a different, and not less singular, 
description of testimony had been brought in to supply the deti- 
ciency in the argument he had attempted to make. What was 
that other proof? The comments of opposition newspapers 
upon Mr. Biddle's letter ! The remarks and inferences of the 
Baltimore Chronicle upon that singular production ! ! Mr. 
W. was not disposed to extend remarks upon such a case, based 
upon such evidence and coming from such a quarter. He would, 
therefore, only add that such never had been and such never 
should be the standard by which lie Avould judge his friends. 
Neither the President nor the Secretary of the Treasury should 
ever receive condemnation from him upon such authority. If 
they were to be convicted of a design to fasten upon the country 
a national bank of any character, he must learn the fact from 
better authority than the Baltimore Chronicle or the comments 
of any other opposition newspaper, before he should subscribe to 
the verdict. 

" A single other position of the Senator should receive a pass- 
ing notice, and Mr. W. would come to a conclusion. A charge 
had been preferred against the President of the gravest charac- 
ter, drawn from the face of his late message. It was said that 
he had made an arrofjant and unconstitutional recommendation, 
calculated to sink Congress from its high estate to the feet of the 
executive ; that, in that recommendation, the disposition to ren- 
der the executive superior and paramount to the legislative 
power of the government was conclusively manifested. What 
was the specific charge from Avliich this grave inference was so 
confidently drawn ? It was that the President had recommended 
that a committee of Congress, to be appointed by the body, 
should examine at intervals the books, accounts and money in 
the hands of the officers charged Avith the collection, safe-keeping 
and disbursement of the public moneys, as such committee had 



Life and Times of Silas Wmairr. SOI 

been authorized by the charter of the late liaiik of tlic Uniifd 
States, when it was the depository ol" tlie public money, to exam- 
ine its accounts. For what purpose did the President propose 
this examination? The Senator says, that the commiitee mif^ht 
make report thereof to the President ; that a committee of Con- 
gress might be made the servants of the executive and might be 
brought to the foot of the throne to give an account of their 
doings, instead of making a report to the two Houses of Con- 
gress of which tliey themselves would bo a component part, and 
which, as independent representatives of the people or the States, 
they could do without humiliation or disgrace. 

" Mr. W. would appeal to the Senator himself to say if this 
was a fair or candid statement of the recommendation of the 
President? Did it convey to the Senate, to this audience, to 
the country, a true idea of the message and of the views and 
wishes of the President as communicated in it? He did not 
charge the Senator with intended unfairness or want of candor. 
With his intention he had nothing to do, but his inquiry went to 
the fact. Was the representation of the Senator fair and candid 
in fact? Let the message itself answer. This is its language: 

" 'When the late Bank of the United Stales was incorporated and made 
the depository of the public moneys, a right was reserved to Congress to 
inspect at its pleasure, by a committee of that body, the books and the pro- 
ceedings of the bauli. In one of the States, whose banking institutions are 
supposed to rank amongst the first in point of stability, they are subjected 
to constant examination by commissioners appointed for that purpose, and 
much of the success of its banking system is attributed to this watchful 
supervision. The same course has also, in view of its beneficial operation, 
been adopted by an adjoining State favorably known for the care it has 
always bestowed upon whatever relates to its financial concerns. I submit 
to your consideration whether a committee of Congress might not be profit- 
ably employed in inspecting, at such intervals as might be deemed proper, 
the afiairs and accounts of ofiicers intrusted with the custody of the public 
moneys. The frequent performance of this duty might be made obligatory 
on the committee in respect to those officers who have large sums in their 
possession, and left discretionary in respect to others. They might report 
to the executive such defalcations as were found to exist, with a view to a 
prompt removal from office unless the default was satisfactorily accounted 
for; and report also to Congress, at the commencement of each session, 
the result of their examinations and proceedings. It does appear to me 

51 



802 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

that, with a subjection of this class of public officers to the general super- 
vision of the executive, to examinations by a committee of Congress at 
periods of which they should have no i^revious notice, and to prosecution 
and punishment as for felony for every breach of trust, the safe-keeping of 
the public monej's under the system proposed might be placed on a surer 
foundation than it has ever occupied since the establishment of the govern- 
ment.' 

" Has the criticism of the gentleman presented this recommen- 
dation, or rather suggestion, fairly and candidly? For what 
purpose does the President snggest that this committee should 
report to him, and what does he snggest should be reported to 
him ? ' They might report to the executive such defalcations as 
were found to exist,' says the message, and for what? 'With a 
view to a prompt removal from office.' But what further are the 
committee to do ? 'And report also to Congress, at the com- 
mencement of each session,' what ? ' The result of their exami- 
nations and proceedings.' Is there here an attempt to evade the 
Legislature and draw power to the executive ? The power of 
removal from office rests with the President by the Constitution, 
and it is only to advise him when the exercise of that j^ower is 
required, for the safety of the public money, that a report to him 
from the committee of examination is suggested. Is that an 
attempt to degrade the legislative power and bring it into sub- 
serviency to the executive? Does it manifest a disposition to 
bring down Congress from its high estate ? Who would hold a 
committee of Congress blameless which should find a defalcation 
such as is contemplated in the message, and should not immedi- 
ately report the defaulting officer to the President, 'with a view 
to a prompt removal from office ' of the delinquent ? Would a 
single Senator who heard him" hold a committee guiltless which 
should omit this plain public duty ? Was it then a crime in the 
President to suggest the performance of it ? Or was it an offense 
against Congress to mention, as proper, what all were compelled 
to admit would be an imperious obligation ? He could not antici- 
pate such a conclusion from such premises. Was it, then, fair or 
candid to have commented with such severity upon the sugges- 
tion, and not to have stated the object of the report proposed to 
be made to the President, or the fact that a full and perfect report 
to Congress was also recommended ? He could not so consider it. 



Life and Times of Silas Wwniiir. H(y.\ 

" Had the remarks which liad ralleii rroin tlio Senator prococ'cU'.! 
from one of the gentlemen declaredly in the ()i)i)()siti()n, liis sur- 
prise would have been less. They did not al\v;iys, in the w.irnilli 
of debate, and acting under feelings of general political host Hit y, 
feel bound to give their opponents an ojiportunity to be licaid 
before they bestowed censures, nor did tlicy alw:ivs liml it suit- 
able to their purposes to state the whole case upon w hirh to 
found the inferences they might wish to draw, llui, iVoni a 
Senator standing in the relation to the ndnnnisti-aiion which lie 
had supposed the gentleman from Virginia did, he had c\[icctcd 
fairness and candor at least; that if a judgment of comlerniiation 
must be rendered, it would be after, and not before, an opportu- 
nity liad been afforded to present the facts upon which it must 
rest, and that a statement of the whole case would be spread 
upon the record. 

" He had, however, doubtless mistaken the position of the 
Senator. He remembered that some person had, during the sum- 
mer past, defined the condition of a certain, political party of the 
country to be that of ' an armed neutrality,' in reference to tlie 
two great contending parties of the day. Of tliis party lie 
believed the Senator called himself a member, and from his 
speech of this day it was plain that he, Mr. W., must have been 
mistaken as to the true definition of an ' armed neutrality.' He 
had supposed it indicated a relation purely defensive, but he 
must suppose, from the example the Senator had presented, that 
it was one wholly offensive; that it was exclusively belligerent, 
and authorized offensive war upon all parties. In this sense, all 
cause for his surprise and disappointment was removed. Rut if 
there was anything of neutrality in the relation in which the 
Senator had placed himself to-day toward the party to which lie 
belonged, it was surely an armed neutrality at the best. [To 
these remarks Mr. Kives replied at some length, and Mr. WiiKiUT 
rejoined in a very few words, and substantially as follows :] 
Mr. WeiCxHT said he did not wish to protract this debate, and 
he found it so impossible to make himself understood b\- the 
honorable Senator [Mr. Rives] that he should not attempt to 
answer him farther. He would further assure the gentleman and 
the Senate that he sliould not permit himself, in any degree, to 



804 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

partake of the heat and passion which had characterized the last 
remarks to which they had listened. He rose for a single pur- 
pose, to correct a single error. The Senator had represented 
Mr. W. as menacing him with execiitive displeasure ; as 
attempting to terrify him by the dread of executive censures. 
He had done no such thing, nor had he, to his knowledge, said 
anything from which such an inference could be possibly drawn. 
The Senate were the witnesses of what he had said, and he 
ajDpealed to them, individually and collectively, to say if the 
language he had used was possibly susceptible of any such inter- 
pretation. He would go farther, and say that no intention to 
use language of that character had existed in his mind, and he 
could not think he had made expressions so foreign from his 
feelings and intentions. He was not authorized to speak of 
executive displeasure or to wield executive censures, nor had he 
attempted to do either. 

" A single other remark. If the inference which might follow 
from the last remark of the Senator was intended for him, he 
repelled and spurned it. [Mr. Rives rose as Mr. W. was resum- 
ing his seat, and inquired to what remark of his Mr. Weight 
alluded, saying he did not know what allusion was intended. 
Mr. Wright said he understood the Senator to have closed 
with the words, ' I am no vassal of the President. Let the 
Senator from New York understand that.' [Mr. Rives, turning 
from Mr. Wright, and addressing the Senate, said : ' I am not 
a vassal of the President, or any one else, and I wish that under- 
stood everywhere.' "] 



Life and Times of Silas Wrioht. 805 



Chapter LXXVI. 

SALE OF THE BONDS HELD BY THE UNITED STxVTES, GIVEN 
BY THE UNITED STATES BANK OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

When the Bank of the Unitf^d States was about to 
expire, in 1836, and all hope of securing a new charter 
from Congress had ceased, the Pennsylvanui Lc^gislature 
granted a State charter under which it acted. The capital 
of the old bank was transferred to the new and formed its 
basis for banking. One-fifth of this, $7,000,000, belonged 
to the United States, which they alone could control. 
On the 23d of June, 1836, Congress passed an act author- 
izing the Secretary of the Treasury to receive pay for the 
same, and exercise other powers in relation thereto. The 
new bank subsequently proposed terms of adjustment of 
these matters. 

On the 3d of March, 1837, Congress, by a joint resolu- 
tion, authorized the Secretary to settle with the new 
bank, "and take such obligations for the payment of the 
several installments, in said proposed terms of settlement 
mentioned, as he may think proper." The Secretary 
exercised the powers conferred, and took the bonds of 
the bank for the amount due, payable at diflferent periods. 

On the 7th of July, 1838, Congress passed an act 
authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to make sale 
of the bonds thus taken, in aid of the treasury, which he 
did, and reported to Congress. On this report a discus- 
sion arose, in which Mr. Wright defended the President 
and Secretary of the Treasury in the following extended 
remarks : 

" Mr. Weight said : I rise, Mr. President, to perform a task 
from which I had hoped to be discharged. I had hoped that 



806 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

some other member of the Senate, more capable and less likely 
to be suspected of partiality upon the one side, and of prejudice 
upon the other, would have relieved me from it. Hence, to some 
extent, the long delay, on my part, to ask the Senate to bring the 
subject of these reports again to its attention. And hence, too, 
the extreme reluctance I have felt, and some of which I have 
manifested to this body, to seem to court a continuartce of debate 
upon it. The clearest convictions of duty, however, to myself, 
to the hitherto tried and faithful public officers whose conduct is 
brought under suspicion, and, above all, to that great public, 
whose servants we all are, to whom we are all responsible, and 
whose full and clear and perfect understanding of the truth, in 
reference to every public act of every public servant, ought to be 
an object of primary interest with us all, impel me to the course 
I pursue. 

" The recent business transactions between certain executive 
officers of the government and the Bank of the United States, 
chartered by the State of Pennsylvania, has justly excited some 
interest throughout the country. That interest has been materi- 
ally increased and strengthened by the manner in which the chief 
officer of that banking institution has felt himself authorized to 
speak to the public of these transactions. It was not, therefore, 
to have been expected, much less hoped, that Congress would fail 
to make the whole subject one of inquiry and examination. The 
Senate has not disappointed this reasonable exj^ectation. On the 
contrary, a lively and pervading interest, in this body, has been 
given to the whole matter, by the peculiar care with which the 
calls for information have evidently been drawn, and by the 
anticipatory debates which accompanied those calls. The reso- 
lutions were passed without objection; and, when I remember 
their particularity and precision, I feel authorized to assume that 
all the facts are now before us, embodied in the reports under 
consideration. A fail- and full examination of those facts, and of 
the conclusions properly and naturally to be drawn from them, is 
my present purpose ; and I take great pleasure, Mr. President, in 
promising you that the duty shall be discharged with as little 
consumption of the time, and as light a tax upon the patience, of 
the Senate as shall be possible. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. S()7 

"Inasmuch, however, as the pre-existing relations between tlic 
government of the United States and tlie l>ank of the rnilcd 
States have given foundation for the transactions complaiiu'd of, 
a very brief notice of tliose rehitions will, in my estimation, con- 
tribute essentially to a full and clear understanding of the mntlLTS 
under discussion. The first of these relations was that of a [)art- 
nership in banking, and the second was that of a creditor and 
debtor ; and out of both have grown the proceedings which form 
the subject of this debate. 

" The Bank of the United States, as a national institution, com- 
menced its chartered existence on the 4th day of March, 18 IG. 
By the terms of the charter, the United States were to hold the 
one-fifth part of its whole stock, an amount equal to $7,000,000. 
That stock was taken, and, with very trifling exceptions compara- 
tively, was held throughout the term of twenty years which the 
charter had to run. I believe that some transfers of stock, from 
the general treasury to the navy pension fund, had varied, very 
limitedly, the amount of that direct interest ; but the variation 
is immaterial to the purposes of this argument, and, as the trans- 
fer was made to a trust fund, in the safety and protection of which 
an interest was felt, and actually existed, equal to that for the 
safety and protection of any other equal portion of the public 
treasure, the real public interest was not at all changed. 

"Upon the expiration of the charter of the bank as a national 
institution, in March, 1836, this great interest was left subject to 
the management of the directors and other ofiicers of the bank 
durino- the two vears allowed by the charter for the winding up 
of its affairs, and left, almost necessarily, in an unproductive 
state. Hence the early interest felt and manifested, as well in 
Congress as by the chief fiscal officer of the government, to give 
prompt and eflicient attention to this portion of the public trea- 
sure. The charter of the bank expired during the session of 
Congress; and, before its adjournment, a law was passed consti- 
tuting the Secretary of the Treasury the agent of the United 
States to superintend this interest, with full power to liquidate 
the amount, to receive payment, or to take security for payment 
at a future day, submitting to his sole discretion the forbearance 
to be extended and the sufficiency of the security to be offered. 



808 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" In the meantime, and at about the period, if not upon the 
very day, of the expiration of the charter, a proceeding was had 
by the boai-d of directors of the bank which I must be permitted 
to call singular, at the least, and especially so as it was a pro- 
ceeding to which the government was in no sense a party. The 
whole bank, its stocks, debts, credits and effects, of every name 
and character, were sold and transferred to a banking institution 
chartered by the State of Pennsylvania. This transfer took place 
in March, and the law of Congress, last referred to, did not pass 
until the twenty-third of June after. The transfer was to an institu- 
tion in which, upon the face of its charter, the United States were 
prohibited from holding stock, so that the government could 
take nothing in the new bank by this sale of its property in the 
old. Such was the condition of this public interest at the time 
Congress adjourned in 1836. 

"It is proper to pause here, and see what was the state of the 
public treasury at this period, that we may estimate the willing- 
ness, on the part of all the piablic functionaries, to accept security 
for the payment of this debt at a future day, instead of payment 
in hand, and consequently the willingness of Congress to submit 
the time of payment to the Secretary of the Treasury alone. The 
treasury was, at the time referred to, full to overflowing, and 
statesmen of the greatest experience and deepest reflection consid- 
ered the abundance of our revenues and the surplus of onr treasure 
as one of the severest evils which then did, or which ever had, 
threatened the purity and permanency of our institutions. So 
great was the desire to discharge the country from the corrupting 
and demoralizing influences of this flood of money, that, on the 
very day on which this agency over our interest in the bank was 
given to the Secretary of the Treasury, a law was passed to set 
apart from the general and ordinary uses of the treasury, and dis- 
tribute to the States, in the form of a deposit, more than thirty- 
seven millions of dollars of the public money. This law stands 
upon the statute book next before that which authorizes the 
Secretary to extend a credit upon the debt due from the bank. 

" I will now pass to the next session of Congress — the annual 
session of 1836-37. On the 1st day of January, 1837, the balance 
was to be struck, and all the money found in the treasury, deduct- 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 809 

ing five millions of dollars to meet outstandiiig appvopi-iations, 
was to be laid aside, and deposited with the States in the ratio 
of their representation in the two Houses of Congress; the 
one quarter on that day, one other quarter on the first day 
of April, the third quarter on the first day of July, and llic 
remaining quarter on the first day of October, of that year. 
This left the treasury with five millions of dollars of means, 
and something more than fourteen millions of dollars of out- 
standing appropriations. The current revenue of the year, 
therefore, must meet the balance of outstanding appropriations 
beyond the five millions of dollars left in the treasury, and 
also the current appropriations of the year, or the money placed 
in deposit with the States must be called back to pay the defi- 
ciency. This, I think, was about the state of facts, and the 
condition of the treasury, on the 1st day of January, 1837; though 
I have not looked at the figures for this occasion, and, speaking 
from memory, may not be precisely accurate. During this ses- 
sion of Congress, a report was received from the Secretary of the 
Treasury, detailing the efforts which had been made under the 
law of 1836 to liquidate, settle and secure the bank debt; giving 
the then state of the negotiation, and showing that no definite 
or satisfactory result had been reached. It appeared, however, 
that examinations had been made, facts ascertained and conclu- 
sions formed, as to the fair value of the interest of the United 
States arising from their stock ; and that distinct offers to sell 
the claim to the new Pennsylvania bank, at a given price, and 
upon specified terms, as to time and interest, had been made 
by the commissioners appointed by the Secretary, but that no 
answers had been obtained to their propositions. 

"After this report was laid before Congress and the public, 
the board of directors of this Pennsylvania bank, through their 
president, addressed a memorial to Congress, giving their accept- 
ance of one of the offers which had been made to them, and 
Congress, on the 3d of March, 1837, passed a concurrent resolu- 
tion, directing the Secretary of the Treasury to take the security 
offered, and close the business. 

" The whole value of the claim, as liquidated by the offer and 
acceptance, was 17,946,356.16. This was the amount conceded 



810 J^iF^ ^^^ Times of Silas Wright. 

to have been due to the United States on the day after the expi- 
ration of the charter of the bank as a national institution, the 
4th day of March, 1836 ; a. id, by the terms of the bargain, pay- 
ment was to be made in four equal installments of $1,986,589.04 
each, the first to be paid in the month of September, 183*7, and 
the remaining three installments in one, two and three years from 
that time, with interest upon the whole amount from and after 
the 3d day of March, 1836, until paid, at the rate of six per 
centum per annum. The Secretary proceeded to carry into effect 
the resolution of Congress, to ascertain the amounts as above 
stated, and to take the bonds of the United States Bank of Penn- 
sylvania to secure the payments, that being the security agreed 
to be given by the terms of the acceptance. 

" In this way the claim of the United States was transferred 
from the Bank of the United States chartered by Congress, to 
that chartered by the State of Pennsylvania; and thus the bonds 
against the latter institution, which have given rise to the trans- 
actions principally complained of, came into existence. These 
bonds were each for the same amount, $1,980,589.04. Each 
bears an interest of six per centum per annum from the 3d day of 
March, 1836 ; and the first was payable in all tlie month of Sep- 
tember, 1837, the second in 1838, the third in 1839 and the fourth 
in 1840. All tliese bonds bear date on the 10th day of May, 
1837; and it is impossible not to mark the singular coincidence of 
dates between the conclusion of this negotiation, which postponed 
the payment, and placed beyond the power and control of the 
treasury this almost eight millions of dollars, and that universal 
suspension of specie payments by the banks of the country, which 
instantly deprived the treasury of means to pay the public credit- 
ors, and compelled an extra call of Congress. I have stated that 
the bonds were dated on the 10th day of May, 1837. They were, 
therefore, executed on that day, either at Washington or Phila- 
delphia, while at New York, on the very same day, specie pay- 
ments were suspended. I speak from recollection upon this 
point, but feel sure that the suspension took place at New York 
on the 10th of May, 1837; and it was certainly followed, almost 
instantly, where it had not been preceded, by nearly every bank- 
ing institution in the whole Union. A consequence of this was 



Life and Times of Silas Wrkhit. ^11 

to render unavailable, for leoal payments, all tlic balances in iIk; 
deposit banks, and to throw back upon tlic treasury, thus (hprive.l 
of its means, masses of outstanding drafts which had lucn .liawn 
upon these deposits, but which had not reached their phices of 
destination and been presented for payment when the suspension 
was proclaimed. At this crisis the bank debt would luive been a 
most timely and important aid, if it couhl have been realized in 
cash; but the consummation, on the very day of the suspension 
by the banks, of the terms of a compromise, tendered on the ))art 
of the government when the treasury was more than full, and 
accejDted by the bank several months after it was tendered, had 
postponed payment upon this debt for one, two, three and four 
years. 

" Under circumstances like these, the proclamation of the 
President was issued, bearing date on the 15th of May, 1837, and 
calling a special meeting of Congress for September of that year. 
The deposits with the States, to be made on the first of January 
and first of April, of between nine and ten millions of dollars 
each, had been nearly completed, and drafts had l)een issued for 
the i^rincipal part, if not for the whole, of the deposit, of like 
amount, to be made on the first of July, when the suspension of 
specie payments by the banks placed the very moneys, out of 
which these deposits were to be made, beyond the control of the 
law or of the fiscal ofticers of the government. The consequence 
was, that many of the outstanding drafts for the July deposits, 
and some few of those for the previous installments, were dis- 
honored by the banks upon which they were drawn, and I'eturned 
upon the treasury for payment, while the whole means of the 
treasury, to meet these and other payments, were locked up in 
the suspending banks. Hence the aid of Congress was invoked, 
at the earliest practicable period, and the ability of the treasury 
to wet on until the commencement of the extra session was ren- 
dered extremely doubtful. So rapid was our transition, in a 
public sense, from superabundant wealth to extreme poverty, 
from plethoric fullness in the public treasury to extreme want and 
almost perfect destitution ! 

"It will now be proper to see what legislation was adopted by 
Congress affecting the public treasury at the extra session of 



812 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

September and October, ]837. In the way of supply, a bill was 
passed, on the twelfth day of October, authorizing the Secretary 
of the Treasury to issue paper, upon the credit of the govern- 
ment, in the shape of treasury notes, as the wants of the treasury 
should require, not to exceed, in all, the amount of $10,000,000, 
but with such restrictions in the law as to prohibit the reissue 
of any single note which should fall into the hands of an officer 
of the government, in payment to the United States, while all the 
notes were made a legal tender for all such payments. 

" On the other hand, nearly every ordinary resource of the 
treasury was cut off, for a period, by a law which suspended, for 
the space of nine months after maturity, all payments upon all 
outstanding duty bonds, and gave a credit of three and six 
months upon such cash duties as had become due and were 
unpaid, or should become due upon importations to be made pre- 
vious to the month of November, 1837; and by another law 
which, at the option of the deposit banks, suspended payment 
upon the balances due from them, for previous deposits, for periods 
of eight, fourteen and twenty months, and required that the 
bonds of the institutions for payment, at the expiration of those 
periods, of equal third parts of their respective debts, satis- 
factorily secured, should be received in lieu of payments in 
hand. 

"Another law was also passed, at this extra session, materially 
affecting the treasury in both directions. I allude to the law 
' postponing the payment of the fourth installment of deposits 
with the States.' This law relieved the treasury from this call of 
between 19,000,000 and $10,000,000, until the 1st day of January, 
1839; but it, at the same time, prohibited the Treasurer from 
drawing, under any circumstances, or for any purpose, upon 
the $28,000,000 which had been previously deposited with the 
States in obedience to the provisions of the deposit law of 1836. 
Its effect, therefore, was to deprive the treasury of three dollars 
of means for every one dollar of demand from which it was 
relieved. 

" With the exception of the necessary appropriations made at 
the extra session, no other legislation materially affecting the 
public treasury has been discovered. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. SI.:} 

"I will now pass on to the annual session of Contrrcss of 
1837-38, and see in what manner the legislation of that session 
was made to influence the operations of the treasury. On the 
21st of May, 1838, a law passed giving to the Secretary of tlie 
Treasury the power to issue new treasury notes in the place of 
all those which, having been issued under the law of the extra 
session, had been paid in and canceled or should be so paid in 
and canceled under the provisions of that law. The same pro- 
hibition, however, against a reissue of the new notes was retained 
in the law of 1838, while these notes also Avere made a legal ten- 
der in all public payments. 

"The only other legislation of this session intended for the 
supply of the treasury was the law of the Vth of July, 1838, 
authorizing a sale in the market of the tAvo bonds against the 
Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania which were to become 
due and payable in September, 1839 and 1840, being the third and 
fourth of the four bonds taken in the manner before related to 
secure the debt due to the United States from the late Bank of 
the United States chartered by Congress, for the stock held by 
the United States in that institution at the time of tlie expiration 
of its charter. It will be remembered that the first bond was 
made payable in September, 1837, which time had passed and 
that bond had been paid and canceled. The second bond, made 
payable in September, 1838, would fall due so soon after the pas- 
sage of the law that it was not thought advisable to include in it 
a provision for its sale, as the money might be received upon it 
from its maturity before a negotiation for the sale could be 
brought to a successful termination. Hence the law provided 
for the sale of the two last bonds only ; and this law it is, and 
the practical execution of it by the Secretary, which has given 
rise to this discussion and now compels me to obtrude myself 
upon the attention of the Senate. 

"The law made the Secretary of the Treasury the agent of the 
government for the sale of the bonds; limited him to tlie par 
value of each bond in the market, ' calculated according to the 
rules for estimating the par value of securities upon which inte- 
rest has run for a time, but which securities have not reached 
maturity;' opened to him the markets of our own and foreign 



814 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

countries, and directed that the sale should be made for ' money 
in hand.' 

" This brings me to an examination of the facts in relation to 
the execution of this law, and for them I must refer to the reports 
under consideration and to the documents accompanying them. 
From this time forward I shall, as far as practicable, let the 
reports and the correspondence speak for themselves; as, not- 
withstanding the tediousness to myself and the Senate of read- 
ing documents here, I prefer that the facts themselves and the 
language of the parties, rather than my understanding of either, 
should guide the judgment of this body and the country upon 
the issue presented. 

"It will be proper here to remark that but one of the bonds 
authorized to be sold has as yet been sold under the law — the 
bond to become due in September of the present year — that to 
fall due in September, 1840, being yet held by the treasury as 
the property of the United States. It will, however, be seen that 
various negotiations, all at the instance of the bank, have been 
carried on between that institution and the Secretary of the 
Treasury, the object of which was to arrange the mode and man- 
ner of payment of the second bond, to fall due in September, 
1838, and, as an inducement to the officers of the treasury to 
yield to the mode and manner desired by the bank, offering on 
its part to anticipate portions of that payment, at times which 
should be most desirable to the government in reference to the 
calls for public disbursement. It is indispensable to a perfect 
understanding of the transactions that the negotiations for this 
object and those for the sale of the third bond, under the law 
before referred to, should not be confounded ; while the dates 
and order and manner of the correspondence ujDon the two sub- 
jects, and the similarity of the propositions from the bank in 
both cases, require some care to preserve the separation perfectly, 
and at the same time to comprehend the whole force of the facts 
as ap])licable to each transaction. 

" Hence I propose to examine all the facts in relation to the 
time, mode and manner of payment of the second bond, due in 
September, 1838, and Avhich was not sold, before I refer to the 



Life and Times of Silas Wrkiht. s 



.) 



facts attending the sale of the third bond, which was sold lu the 
bank. 

" The first question which arises in tlus course of iii(|tiiry is, 
was the state of tlie treasury, at the time the uegolialioii was 
concluded for an anticipation of tlie payment of two-thirds of 
this bond, and a postponement for the ]X'riod oL' lU'leen days oidy 
of the remaining third, such as to warrant the arrangement, on 
the part of the Secretary of the Treasury, as one calculated to 
promote the public intei'ests, and to secure more certainly I lie 
payment of the public creditors ? This question the Secretary of 
the Treasury himself shall answer. And as the same (|uestion 
will necessarily arise in reference to the sale of tlie third boml, 
and as the report of the Secretary, in answer to the call of the 
Senate, frequently speaks of the condition and necessities of the 
treasury in reference to both of these negotiations in the same 
sentence, his answer as to both shall be given here. I read first 
from page four of the report, Avhich relates more pailicnlarly to 
the payment of the second bond, to fall due in Sc})tember, 1838, 
though clauses of the extract allude also to the sale of the third 
bond. The Secretary says : 

" ' To avoid the payment of the bond that was to fall due on the first of 
October being made in new treasury notes, not reissuable, nor available in any 
way to discharge appropriations, and which event loas apprehended by tiio 
department, the written agreement was made with the bank, which will be 
found among the documents, stipulating, among other things, for the pay- 
ment of that bond on drafts to the public creditors, and in specie or its 
equivalent. This, though collateral to the sale of the otlier l)()nd, was a 
part of the same negotiation. 

" ' It was very clear at the time, and has been confirmed by subsecpient 
events, that the payment by the bank of its bonds in such treasury notes, 
and a failure to make that arrangement, the only practicable one for the sale 
of the third bond, would render either a special call of Congress or a sus- 
pension of payment of some of the demands upon the treasury inevitable. 
The department did not feel itself at liberty to hesitate in deciding between 
an exposure of the public service to either of those extremities, by insisting 
upon having the whole of these large sums of money paid at one time, and 
placed elsewhere in other suitable depositories, if any covild be Umm\ in the 
present imperfect state of the law, or a consent to leave them in the hands 
of the public debtor until they were actually wanted, and then to draw for 
them, in specie or its equivalent, when and where the public service required. 
Especially could the department not hesitate, when this course was not injuri- 



816 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

ous to that service, and it was unable at tliat time to withdraw those funds 
except by the debtor's voluntary consent.' 

"Again, on page five, with more exclusive reference to the 
arrangements in relation to the second bond, and to the places 
and manner of disbursement required by the wants of the public 
sei'vice, he says : 

" ' In relation to another inquiry concerning " the period when the sum of 
$1,600,000, in part payment of the second bond of the Bank of the United 
States, was placed to the credit of the treasury," I state that $800,000 was 
placed to his credit on the loth day of August, and $800,000 more on the 
15th September, 1838. As to the "nature of the " whole agreement on that 
subject, I reply that it will be found in the correspondence annexed. 

" ' The substance of it was that about one-third of the amount of the bond 
should be paid in the middle of August, one-third in the middle of Septem- 
ber, and the other third in the middle of October, as these periods and 
amounts of payments were deemed likely to promote the convenience of the 
treasury, if not of both parties, better than to pay the whole large sum of 
near $2,500,000 at once at the close of the month of September. It was 
further stipulated that interest should cease on each of the installments 
thus paid on the day they were placed to the credit of the Treasurer, and 
made subject to his draft. As the money was wanted at different points 
to meet the public expenditures near them, the drafts of the Treasurer on 
the bank, payable at those several points, were engaged to be met there Avith 
promptitude, and in specie or its equivalent.'' 

"Here is a condensed, but full and clear, statement of the 
result of the negotiations as to the mode and manner and times 
of payment of the second bond, with suggestions as to the con- 
venience to the treasury of this manner of payment over that of 
the receipt of the whole sum of about $2,400,000, in a single pay- 
ment, on the first day of October, while the extract closes with 
showdng that the payments, at the times and places stipulated, 
were to be made ' in specie or its equivalent.' 

"Again, upon pages two and three of the report, and refer- 
ring principally to the sale of the third bond, the Secretary goes 
more fully into the state of the treasury, and shows most clearly 
the necessity for the sale and anticipation of the proceeds of this 
bond, which were not to become due until September, 1839, to 
meet the appropriations of 1838, which, he says, 'proved to be 
unusually great.' It need scarcely be said that, if such was the 
condition of the treasury and the anticipated wants of the public 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 817 

service in July as to prove the necessity for the sale of the third 
bond before the close of that fiscal year, the same facts must 
have proved, more clearly, the necessity of anticipating, so far as 
that could be done, the payments upon the second bond, tlie 
vs^hole of which was to fall due on the first day of October. The 
language of the Secretary is : 

"'The appropriations actually made having proved to be unusually 
great, and the expenditures anticipated during the two next ensuing 
months being much larger in amount than the immediate means which the 
department could expect to derive in money from other sources withm 
those mouths, I at once addressed letters to the bankers of the United 
States at London, and to our minister at Paris, requesting that measures 
might be taken, without delay, to obtain offers for those bonds, if possible, 
from capitalists in Europe. To these letters answers were received in due 
season, stating that, from the short time the bonds had to run, the absence 
of the guarantee of the United States for their eventual payment, and other 
causes, no sale could probably be effected of them either in London or 
Paris within the limits fixed by law. In the meantime, however, finding 
that the demands for the public service during the month of June had 
exceeded $4,500,000, and expecting, as the fact turned out to he, that they icould 
equal about $7,000,000 in July and August, and finding, also, that the available 
balance in the treasury, applicable to general purposes, and subject to draft, fell 
beloio §1,000,000, a7id that payments were making at times in new treasury notes, 
which could not be rendered at all available, I considered it necessary to 
effect a sale of at least one of the bonds at an earlier day than advices could 
be received and any proceeds realized from Europe. Particular inquiry 
was, therefore, instituted in the city of New York, and elsewhere, concern- 
ing the probability of selling soon one or more of the bonds, and also a public 
advertisement was issued, inviting proposals generally for their purchase. 

" ' The result was, that from the abundance of State stocks in the market, 
at very reduced prices, the lower rate at which other securities of tJie bank 
were selling, and the want of a guarantee by the United States, the sale was 
found, with the exception hereafter stated, to be wholly impracticable in 
this country, and was expected to be so abroad, under the conditions pre- 
scribed in the act. Indeed, no bids icere at any time made for either of the 
bouds, in conformity to those conditions, except that of Charles Macalester, 
Esq., of Philadelphia, who offered to purchase both of them within the 
terms of the law.' 

" Here is the most full and clear answer to the question. The 
expenditures for June had been more than '$4,500,000;' those 
for July and August were expected to be 'about $7,000,000, 
which expectation was realized by the fact, and the ' balance in 
52 



818 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

the treasury, apitlicable to general purposes and subject to draft, 
fell below |1, 000,000.' Hence the Secretary 'considered it neces- 
sary to effect a sale of at least one of the bonds at an earlier day 
than advices could be I'eceived and any proceeds realized from 
Europe.' 

" I will now proceed to notice the correspondence, and first, 
that in relation to the payment of the second bond. And here it 
will be interesting, if not useful, to notice dates and coincidences 
between the proceedings in Congress toward a sale of the bonds, 
and the efforts on the part of the bank to gain possession of 
them or make arrangement for their payment. 

"On the 5th of April, 1838, the Senate, by a resolution, 
instructed the Committee on Finance to inquire into the state of 
the treasury, and, in case there should be a prospect that more 
means would be wanted than had been provided by Congress, 
further to inquire into the expediency of raising those means by 
a sale of the bank bonds, 

" On the twenty-first of the same month, Mr. Macalester 
addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury a note, making dis- 
tinct propositions for anticipating the payment of the second 
bond, to fall due in September, 1838, and inviting a correspond- 
ence. The documents exhibiting this negotiation will be found 
appended to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, now 
under consideration, commencing at page 11, and are marked 
A 1 to 7 inclusive. The negotiation was unsuccessful, because the 
parties could not agree as to the medium in which the projDosed 
l^ayments should be made; but there are certain points in this 
correspondence which I consider it important to notice, for futui'e 
reference, and will, therefore, read to the Senate a few short 
extracts. The Secretary, in his rej)ly to Mr. Macalester's first 
note, under date of twenty-eighth April, writes as follows : 

"'111 the meantime, as you do not state that the proposal contained in 
your letter is made under authority from the bank, and as the discussion 
of such a proijosal, unless made dii-ectly by the bank, or its authorized 
agent, might be liable to misconstruction, and lead to no useful result, you 
will see the necessity, before my replying fully, that any arrangement 
desired should be made in that form.' 

"In reply to this part of the Secretary's note, Mr, Macalester, 

under date of the second of May, says : 



Life and Times of iSjlas W Wkiiit. sI!> 

'"Sir.— I have the honor to ncknowlcd-c ilic icccii.l ol' vmr IcUcr of 
tweuty-eiiilith ultimo. In answer to winch 1 have to stale that I am aullmr- 
izecl by the Bank of the United Stales, eiiartered by Pennsylvania, to enter 
into the arrangements proposed in my letter of Iwenty-lirst ultimo.' 

"This establishes the laet tliat Mr. M:ieah>ster was here iictinrr 
as the agent of tlie bank, with full power to niaki' I he arnni<,'e- 
ment he proposed; and as he couliiiues, throughout all the nego- 
tiations as to both bonds, to act as the principal a<«-cnt and 
instrument of the institution, without anylliiui;- liirtlun- a])pearing 
upon the face of the papers as to his character or jiowers, thw 
above inquiry and answer were, doubtless, considered l)y both 
parties sufficient upon tliat point. 

" In the answer of the Secretary to Mr. Macalester's note of 
the second of May, fi-oni whicli the above is extracted, and in 
which he maizes formal propositions as to the tinges, places and 
maimer of payment of the second bond, is the following para- 
graph, which closes the letter : 

" ' To prevent misapprehension, it should be distinctly understood that, 
with the exception of treasury notes, the general course has been to accept 
no credit unless the deposit is made in speck or its equivalent, or unless the 
deposit has Ijeen received by some ])ublic claimants as equivalent to specie. 
The right of every claimant to be paid in the legal currency of the United 
States is fully recognized by this department; and considering the opinion 
entertained by the executive, and at least one branch of the Legislature, 
tJie idea must be expressly excluded that the notes of the second Bank of tlie 
Unitsd States, chartered in 1816, can he permitted to bo employed in any of the 
transactions growing out of this arrangement.^ 

"This letter bears date on the third of May, and, under date 
of the fifth of May, Mr. Macalester replied, which teniiinated 
that negotiation. Among other things he says: ' I did not and 
could not have intended to proj^ose a negotiation on the basis of 
a specie pai/ment.'' 

" These are the only references to this corres])ondence neces- 
sary to my purpose, and they are necessary because they establish 
the character of Mr. Macalester as agent of the bank, and the 
further fact that the Secretary of the Treasury, in the negotiation, 
adhered to 'the basis of a specie payment, or a payment equiva- 
lent to specie.^ 

" This correspondence covered the time from the twenty-first 



820 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

April to the fifth of May. We have before seen that, on the 
fifth of April, the Committee on Finance was instructed to inquire 
as to the inexpediency of a sale of the bonds, and the inquiry was 
general, relating as well to the second as to the third and fourth 
bonds, all of which remained unpaid. On the second of May the 
committee reported a bill providing for the sale of the third and 
fourth bonds, but not affecting the second ; and on the fifth of 
the same month, the negotiation as to anticipating the payment 
of this latter bond w^as terminated by the agent of the bank, 
unless some other than a specie basis for the payment could be 
acceded to. On the eleventh of May, the bill for the sale of the 
third and fourth bonds passed the Senate, and, on the seventh 
of July after, it became a law. 

" On the twenty-third of July, a second negotiation was opened 
by Mr. Macalester, by inviting the Secretary of the Treasury to 
make specific propositions for the payment of the second bond in 
three installments, to be paid on the 15th days of August, Septem- 
ber and October, 1838, the bond being payable, by its terms, on the 
first day of October of that year. To this invitation the Secre- 
tary answered, under date of the twenty-fourth of July, consent- 
ing to the times of payment proposed, and naming the places of 
payment, and the sums to be paid at each place, and closing with 
the following language: 

" 'In all cases, however, it is, of course, understood that payments will be 
made in specie or its equivalenV 

" These terms Mr. Macalester accepted, by a note dated the 
twenty-fifth July, merely requesting that the negotiation might be 
considered open in relation to the places of payment, and the 
sums to be paid at each, so far as the convenience of the treasury 
and the wants of the public service would permit. On the twenty- 
seventh the Secretary replied, consenting to make such changes 
in the places of payment, and the amounts at each, as could 
be made without material inconvenience to the department. 
This correspondence will be found annexed to the report of the 
Secretary, commencing at page 34, and marked inclosures No. 1 
to 4 inclusive. 

" On the thirteenth of August, the negotiation in relation to the 
payments upon the second bond was renewed by a letter from 



Life and Times of Sir. as Wright. 821 

Mr. Biddle, the president of the hank, to tli(> Scci-ctarv ol' the 
Treasury, suggesting such changes in the places ol" payment, and 
in the amounts to be paid at each phice, as he desired to have 
made, and referring to the correspondence, above (h't;iil(>(l, willi 
Mr. Macalester as the basis of the arrangement in nlation lo iliis 
bond. This correspondence, thus reopened, was continued be- 
tween the officers of the bank and those of the treasury up to 
the eighteenth of August, when all the places of payment, and 
the sums payable at each, were niutiially agreed upon, and the 
negotiation was completed; but, in the nieantinu', and on the 
fifteenth of August, a certificate of deposit, to the credit of the 
Treasurer of the United States, was issued by tlie bank, and 
transmitted for the first installment of '$800,000, payable on that 
day toward the second bond. These documents will be found 
appended to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, now 
under consideration, commencing at page 37, and marked F 8, 
10, 11, 12. 

" This gives a distinct and separate view of all the material 
negotiations in relation to the payment of the second bond, the 
times of payment, the places of payment and the manner of pay- 
ment. From the facts detailed, it will be seen that the bond was 
to be paid, and was paid, in three equal installments of about 
1800,000 each, on the 15th days of August, September and Octo- 
ber, 1838, which would occasion the first installment to be paid 
forty-five days before the bond became due and payable, the 
second installment fifteen days before, and the third installment 
fifteen days after that time; that each installment, on the day it 
became payable by the arrangement, was to be, and was, deposi- 
ted in the bank to the credit of the Treasurer of the United 
States; that upon the strength of these deposits the Treasurer 
was to draw his drafts upon the bank, payable at the several 
places named, and for the several sums agreed upon in the 
arrangement; that those drafts were to be paid by the bank at 
the places at which they were made payable, without being first 
presented at the bank or returned to it for payment; and that 
interest was to cease upon the two installments anticipated wlien 
the money was placed to the credit of the Treasurer in the bank, 



822 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

and was to continue upon the thii'd installment until that, also, 
was so placed to his credit. 

"Tliis is the arrangement which the Secretary of the Treasury 
did make for the payment of the second bond, which, uiDon its 
face, became due and payable on the 1st of October, 1838. That 
the state of the treasury required the anticipated payments 
secured by the arrangement seems to be made certain by the 
report of the Secretary, and that the ijlaces and manner of pay- 
ment were such as best suited the public wants and the con- 
venience of the department is shown by the whole correspondence. 
If, then, there be fault on the part of the Secretary, in consenting 
to the arrangement, it must be because it was wrong to enter 
into a negotiation with the Bank of the United States, chartered 
by the State of Pennsylvania, and to conclude an arrangement 
for the anticipated payment of a debt which the wants of the 
public treasury required, upon terms not only convenient and 
advantageous to the public interests and the public service, but 
upon which alone payments could be anticipated, and because it 
was wrong, by such an arrangement, to secure those payments in 
money, which otherwise might be made in treasury notes, and 
thus rendered wholly unavailable to supply the wants of a reduced 
treasury. Deep as my feelings of hostility have been, and still 
are, against this bank, both as a national and State institution, 
I cannot carry those feelings so far as to censure a faithful public 
officer for acts like these; nor, when by our legislation we have 
driven him to these resorts to supply our treasury placed under 
his charge, can I suspect him of improper motives for having 
consented to negotiate with a dangerous banking institution, 
when it was the only alternative left to him to preserve the pub- 
lic faith, carry on the business of the nation and maintain its 
credit, or condemn him for having accomplished these great 
results by such means. 

" I pass now to the sale of the third bond and the negotiations 
which preceded and accomplished that object. The law author- 
izing that sale, as has been before remarked, was introduced 
into the Senate on the second of May, and the resolution of 
inquiry on the fifth of April previous. With his accustomed 
vigilance, the Secretary of the Treasury anticipated the action of 



Life anjj Times of jSjlas W iuhut. H2-J 

Congress by opening, on tlie eighth of May, a eoircsjMni.h-iicc. 
with an intelligent banker in each of the cities of New \ i)vk arnl 
Philadelphia, to inform liiniself whether, in case of tiic jjassage of 
a law like that proposed, a sale coiiM pi-oli,il>ly lie ina(h' of one or 
both of the bonds, either in the markets of our own oi- a I'orcign 
country. Copies of the bill were transmitted to e.ich of these 
gentlemen and their early opinions solicited. Answers Lo these 
letters were returned within a very few days, and both expressed 
opinions wholly unfavorable as to the prospect of a sah' in this 
country, unless to the bank itself, without tlie guarauly of tho 
government for the payment of the bonds; while one of the 
writers supposed that a sale might be effected in Eui'o[ie upon 
advantageous terms, and that the agent of the l)ank in Loiidoa 
might be induced 'by weighty considerations to enter the field 
as a purchaser;' and the other said, ' tiie bonds liave too short 
a time to run to w^arrant any reasonable expectation of a sale of 
them in Europe on favorable terms, during the present rate of 
exchange.' These letters will be found accompanying tlie report 
of the vSecretary, marked B 1, 2, 3. 

"The bill became a law, without any alteration of form, on the 
seventh of July. Under date of the ninth the Secretary wrote 
to N. M. de Rothschild and Sons, bankers, of London, sending 
them a copy of one of the bonds and requesting them to nego- 
tiate a sale in England if possible. A copy of the law was also 
transmitted. On the eleventh similar communications were 
addressed to the American minister at Paris, with a request 
that he would consult certain bankers named, and such other 
persons as he might think proper, and learn if a sa'le of the bonds 
could be effected in France within tlie terms of the law. On the 
seventeenth of July a gentleman of Baltimore, of known and 
approved qualifications for such a service, was addressed by the 
Secretary to learn if he would consent, for the compensation of 
eight dollars per day and the payment of his expenses, to go to 
Europe as the agent of the department to make sale of the bonds. 
In the meantime, and on the ninth of July, letters were addressed 
to the president of one of the leading banks in each of the cities 
of New York and Boston, and to a gentleman in Xew York 
known as the resident agent there of the banking-houses of the 



824 Life and Thies of Silas Wright. 

Rothschilds in London and Paris, invoking the advice and aid of 
these individuals as to the sale of the bonds in this country or in 
any foreign market. 

"Such were the efforts promptly made by the Secretary to 
secure a sale of these bonds in conformity with the provisions of tlie 
act of Congress, and upon the most favorable terms which could 
be obtained. The condition of the treasury, and the consequent 
necessity for the sale of one or both of the bonds, has been 
already seen in the extracts from the report of the Secretary, 
before given. 

"Under date of the twenty-third of July, the gentleman 
applied to to act as agent for the sale of the bonds abroad 
re^Dlied to the Secretary's request, expressing an opinion that, 
as the state of the money market in Europe was peculiarly favor- 
able, the bonds might probably be sold there within the limita- 
tions prescribed in the law, and possibly upon terms more 
favorable 'if the agency is judiciously executed;' but charac- 
terizing the bonds as 'a less current or salable description of 
securities' than are ordinarily 'tendered for sale in any market,' 
and declining the agency at the compensation proposed, but offer- 
ing to undertake it for a commission of one-fourth of one per cent 
upon the amount of the bonds if sold, and for the pay and mile- 
age of a member of Congress in case of a failure to effect a sale. 
[See documents C, 6 and 7.] 

" The letters of the Secretary to the gentlemen in New York 
and Boston were promptly answered; the one from the agent of 
the foreign banking-houses containing an offer for the bonds, 
which did not come within the limitations of the law; and the 
two others holding out no prospect of a sale of either bond in 
this country, within the terms of the law. The correspondence 
with the two New York gentlemen was continued to great 
length, covering the time from the ninth to the twenty-seventh 
of July, and embracing efforts to effect a sale as well abroad as 
at home, but without any prospect of success. 

" Inasmuch as the Secretary is now charged with a willingness, 
if not a desire, to be driven to make the sale of these bonds to 
the bank itself, it will be but just to him to make one or two 
references to his correspondence with these gentlemen, as indica- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 825 

tive of his feelings upon this point. I will iva.l ficm Lis letter 
of the sixteenth of July, written to Geo. Newbukl, Esq., president 
of the Bank of America, New York. It will be foiiinl on pages 
23 and 24 of the report under consideration, and is marked 1), (J. 
The first paragraph of this letter is in the foUowino- words • 

"'Sir. — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the four- 
teenth instant. I wrote you on yesterday iu consequence of observing iu 
the Philadelphia newspapers some intimations affecting the credit of llie 
bonds of the Bank of the United States in tlie market. It seems to be 
evident that the maker of these bonds intends that no other corporation or 
individual shall purchase them. So many suggestions injurious to tiieir 
value have been made, and, what is more remarkable, considering their 
obvious origin and motive, have been listened to, that I shall probably be 
compelled either to sell the bonds to Mr. Biddle, who is expected here in 
the course of the present week, or to send them abroad for sale.' 

"Does this language, I ask, Mr. President, does tliis look like 
a desire, or even a willingness, to make the sale to the bank ? 
Does it look like a wish to be compelled to make the negotiation 
with Mr. Biddle ? Do you believe, sir, that the president of the 
Pennsylvania bank will look upon this language as conveying 
such a kindly feeling toward himself and his institution ? I will 
read the last paragraph of this same letter. It is in these 
words : 

" ' Any bank which co-operates iu the purchase of these bonds, at a point 
like New York, canuot fail to derive great advantage from the operation. 
The money will probably be required to be drawn for at the rate of about 
half a million monthly. The drafts will be mostly sent to the south and 
southwest, and the greater portion of them will be out thirty, sixty and 
ninety days before presented at bank.' 

" Here are the very benefits, which the charge j^resupposes it 
was the desire and intention of the Secretary of the Treasury to 
confer upon the Pennsylvania bank, specifically pointed out and 
earnestly urged upon the Bank of America in New York, and 
which, be it remembered, that bank would not accept. It cannot 
be necessary that I should trouble the Senate with further extracts 
from this correspondence to rebut so groundless and improbable 
a charge. ' 

" The correspondence to which I have hitherto alluded, in rela- 
tion to the sale of these bonds, will be found among the docu- 



826 Life ajsd Times of Silas Wright. 

ments appended to the Secretary's report, commencing at page 
20, and marked D, 1 to 17 inclusive. 

" This brings me, in point of time, to the negotiations which 
did take j^lace between the bank and the Secretary of the Treasury, 
and resulted in the sale of one of the bonds upon the terms pre- 
scribed in the law. The first step in this negotiation is a letter 
under date of the twenty-first of July, written by Mr. Macalester 
to the Secretary of the Treasury, and is in the following words : 

" ' Washington, July 21, 1838. 

" ' Sir. — I have the honor to submit to you the following proposition for 
the purchase of two bonds of the Bank of the United States chartered by 
Pennsylvania, referred to in your advertisement of eighteenth instant. 

" ' I will give, for one or both of them, the par value, calculated according 
to the rules for estimating the par value of securities upon which interest 
has run for a time, but which securities have not reached maturity ; the 
settlement to be made on first of August next, on which day I will deposit 
the amount thereof, to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States in 
special deposit in the Bank of the United States, in Philadelpliia, in specie 
oritsequioalent; this being done, you will then execute to me an assignment 
of the bonds. 

" 'I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" 'C. MACALESTER. 
" ' Hon. Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury.^ 

" The reply of the Secretary to this proposition is under date 
of the thirtieth of July, and is an acceptance only so far as relates 
to the one bond to fall due in September, 1839. The following 
is the letter : 

*' ' Treasury Department, July 30, 1838. 

" ' Sir. — Your offer of the twenty-first instant, to purchase one or both of 
the bonds of the Pennsylvania Bank of the United States, at the par value, 
as limited in the act of Congress, is accepted lor the bond due in September, 
1839. 

" ' The proposal being to deposit the monej'- to the credit of the Treasm-er, 
in special deposit in said bank, on the first day of August next, I have caused 
a computation to be made of the amount then payable by you. It is sup- 
posed to be $2,254,871.38, and is ascertained in the mode of calculation 
explained in the letter annexed. 

" ' That sum can be deposited ; and if any error is found in the calculation, 
it will be corrected. On receiving the certificate of deposit, I will execute 
t(; you an assignment of the bond. It is understood that the bank is to 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 827 

keep this money safely till drawn ont by the Treasurer, without niukini,' any 
charge to the United States for keeping or paying it over on his drafts. 

" ' I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

'"LEVI WOODBURY, 

" ' Secretary of tlui TreuDury. 
" ' Charles Macalester, Esq., Philadelphia.' 

"In conformity with this proposition und acceptance, llic piTsi- 
dent of the bank writes to the Secretary, nmU'r date of tlie tii-st 
August, as follows : 

" ' Bank of the United Statks, . I ////««/ 1, 18:^S. 

" ' Sir. — You will be informed by Mr. Macalester of his having this day 
deposited in this bank the sum of $3,254,871.38, to the credit of the Trea- 
surer of the United States. 

" ' In your letter to Mr. Macalester of the thirtieth ultimo, directing that 
the money should be deposited in the bank, you add: " It is understood that 
the bank is to keep this money safely till drawn out by the Treasurer, with- 
out making any charge to the United States for keeping or for paying it 
over on his drafts." 

" ' On the part of the bank I confirm that understanding. 

" ' With great respect, yours, 

'"N. BIDDLE, President. 
" ' Hon. Levi Woodbury, 

" 'Secretary of the Treasury, Wasliingtoii, D. C' 

" Of the same date the cashier of the bank transmits to the 

Secretary of the Treasury, or to the Treasurer of the I'nited 

States, the following certificate of deposit, being for the precise 

amount mentioned in the Secretary's letter of acceptance, al)ove 

given : 

" ' Bank of the United States, August 1, 1838. 

" 'I hereby certify that Charles Macalester, Esq., has this day dei)osited 
to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States, in special deposit, the sum 
of $3,254,871.38, subject to the drafts of the said Treasurer. 

'"J. COWPERTHWAIT, Cashier: 

"This presents the negotiation, the sale and the payment of 
the third bond, in the language and acts of the parties, and from 
it a few inferences are to be drawn. 

'■'■First. The negotiation proceeds from the bank, and not from 



828 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

the Secretary of the Treasury, He does not solicit the bank to 
purchase, but the bank solicits him to sell, and offers its terms. 

" Second. Although the proposition from the bank is before 
the correspondence between the Secretary and the president of 
the Bank of America was closed, and on the same day on which 
the agent of the foreign banking-houses closed the correspondence 
between him and the Secretary, by a letter written at N ew York, 
yet the Secretary does not accept that proposition until nine 
days after its date, and three days after the final close of every 
other negotiation for the sale of the bonds in this country, with- 
out the least prospect of success. 

" Third. It was the only proposition for the purchase of the 
bonds coming within the limitations of the law, which he had 
been able to obtain, or was likely to obtain, in this country. 

" Fourth. The proposition was accepted as to one bond only, 
although it was an offer to purchase both upon the same terms, 
and those the terms prescribed in the law. 

" Is it possible, then, that the Secretary was desirous of a con- 
nection with this bank, and to benefit it by a sale of these bonds 
to it ? If so, why did he not invite this bank to purchase during 
the ten or twelve days upon which he was so faithfully soliciting 
offers from other banking institutions, and from individuals ? 
Why did he not accept at once the proposition of this bank, 
when made on the twenty-first of July, and not wait till the 
thirtieth, and until all prospect of obtaining an offer from any 
other quarter was put entirely at rest by the final close of two 
separate negotiations, both of which were open, so far as his 
knowledge extended, when this offer was received ? Why did 
he not accept the proposition as to both bonds, and thus confer 
upon the bank double the benefits which were conferred, if bene- 
fits they were, by his partial acceptance ? Until these questions 
are answered, the charge that the Secretary sought this transac- 
tion with the bank, or sought the advantage of the bank in the 
sale of these bonds, should cease to be made. 

But the Secretary had not heard from the negotiations oi:)ened 
by him in England and France for the sale of these bonds, and 
how, it may be asked, did he know that favorable propositions 
might not come from those quarters ? Or why did he not wait 



Life and Times of Silas Wkioht. 829 

to be informed upon those points, before he closed the transac- 
tion with the bank, by the sale of the third bond? Tliis iiujuiiy 
has already been answered in the extracts read from tlie report 
of the Secretary now under consideration, lie says at page 3 
of the report: 

"'In the meantime, however, finding that the demands for the public 
service during the month of June had exceeded $4,500,000 and expect- 
ing, as the fact turned out to be, that they would equal about $7,000,000 
in July and August, and finding also that the available balance in 
the treasury, applicable to general purposes and subject to draft, fell below 
$1,000,000, and that payments were mahing at times ia neic treasury notes, 
which could not be rendered at all available, I considered it necessary to effect 
a sale of at least one of the bonds at an earlier day than advices could be received 
and any proceeds realized from Europe.^ 

" This is the answer of the oificer himself, made upon his offi- 
cial responsibility, in reply to the inquiry above antici})ated, 
made by the Senate itself. What is it ? That the state of the 
treasury would not permit him to wait for a sale of both of the 
bonds; that it was, in his opinion, '■necessary to effect a sale of at 
least one of the bonds at an earlier day than advices could be 
received and any proceeds realized from Europe.' Is this answer 
true ? Does any one here doubt it ? Will any one here attempt 
to impeach it ? Then the inquiry is answered, and here is the 
reason why the Secretary, in July, and before he had received 
returns from his foreign correspondents, accepted the oifer of 
the bank as to one and not as to both bonds. 

"These correspondents abroad, however, were heard from in 
due time, and Avhat Avere their answers? That the bonds were 
too larffe and could not be divided into smaller sums for the 
market; that they had too short a time to run to make them an 
object for the investment of such heavy sums; and that their 
final payment was not to be guaranteed by the United States; 
that for these reasons, principally, they could not be sold in Eng- 
land or France within the terms of the law. I will not trouble 
the Senate with reading this correspondence. It will be found 
among the documents appended to the report, marked C, 1 to 5, 

inclusive. 

" It is further complained that the Secretary of War took a part 
in this negotiation with the bank. He did so, and what was it? 



830 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

He shall answer for himself, as his language upon the subject 
will convey the truth more clearly, concisely and intelligibly than 
any I can employ will do it. I read from the documents appen- 
ded to the message of the President of the eleventh instant, in 
answer to the call made by the Senate upon him for all the infor- 
mation upon this point, being the report of the Secretary of War 
in reply to the interrogatories propounded. , At pages 1 and 2 of 
the document the Secretary says: 

" ' I have the honor to state that, some time in July last, in order to facili- 
tate the speedy and successful termination of a negotiation at that time pend- 
ing between the Secretary of the Treasury and Mr. Macalester, I acceded to 
the proposition of the latter that, in the event of the sale of the bond being 
perfected, the amount of the purchase-money should be absorbed by the 
expenditure of this department, and the funds to be placed by the bank at 
such points and in such amounts as they might be required, not to exceed 
$500,000 a month from this source; and gave him an assurance that this 
arrangement should be carried into effect, provided no objection were made 
to it by the Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Macalester was accordingly 
furnished Avith a statement, showing at what places and periods and in what 
amounts these funds would be wanted, a copy of which is herewith tur- 
nished, marked A. This arrangement was, on proper explanation, subse- 
quently concurred in by the Secretary of the Treasury, and its details have 
been carried into effect through his office ; and I have reason to believe that 
it aided essentially to produce the favorable issue of the negotiation. It has 
been carried into effect in a manner perfectly satisfactory to this depart- 
ment, the public creditor having been paid in such funds as he preferred to 
receive. I think it proper to mention that, while Mr. Macalester was con- 
ducting his correspondence with the Secretary of the Treasurj^ in April, 
he applied to me to know the probable requirements of this department for 
the residue of the year; and tinding that in all jirobability they would be 
very heavy, he expressed a desire, which was subsequently reiterated by the 
bank, that the purchase of the bond should be negotiated by me and the 
bond be transferred to the use of the War department; to which I replied, 
as stated by Mr. Biddle in his published letter to the Secretary of the thir- 
teenth August, that such an arrangement could not legally be made. That 
subsequently entered into by this department with Mr. Macalester, on which 
in a great measure depended the success of the negotiation for raising the 
necessarj'- funds for carrying on the operations of the government, and 
which was afterward sanctioned by the Secretary of the Treasury, being 
both legal and advantageous to the interests of the United States, I deem it 
unnecessary to saj' more than to repeat the opinion expressed by the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury in liis report on this subject, that the agreement finally 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 831 

concluded with the bank was forced upon the government by tlie conditions 
imposed upon the sale of the bonds, and was entered into ujion tlie fulk-st 
conviction — which subsequent events have proved to be wcll-fjrounded — 
that it was not only the most advantageous wiiieh could be uiade for the 
interests of the government, but presented at that time, in connection witii 
the arrangement for the mode of paying the bond due in September, 18:iH, 
the only means by which a failure to meet the pecuniary engagements of 
the United States or the alternative of another call of Congress by the Presi- 
dent could be avoided. Under these circumstances andwilh Ihcse convic- 
tions, I regarded it to be my duty to use my best endeavors to assist in 
bringing the negotiations for the sale of the bond to tlie bank to a success- 
ful issue, especially as these funds were required to carry on the important 
operations of this department, on which at that particidar period the peace 
and the character of the country so essentially depended.' 

"From the facts here stated, we learn that the bank, in making 
its propositions for anticipating the payment of the secoml ImukI, 
to become elite in September, 1838, as well as to purchase the two 
bonds which did not fall dne until September, 1839 and 1840, 
kept steadily in view the disbursements of the War department, 
and constantly manifested the intention of making tlie payments 
by meeting those disbursements. Hence, in April, when IMr. 
Macalester was holding his correspondence with the Secretary of 
the Treasury, and making his propositions, as the agent of tlie 
bank, for anticipating the payments npon the second bond, which 
correspondence has been before particularly referred to, lie ajtpiied 
to the Secretary of War, as is here stated, to ascertain the require- 
ments of that department for the residue of the year 1838, and, 
finding they would be large, urged that the bank bonds should 
be assigned to tliat department, so that the negotiations of the 
bank might be can-ied on wdth it. Being informed that sucli an 
assignment could not be legally made, the negotiation was prose- 
cuted to its unsuccessful termination with the Secretary of the 
Treasury, as has been before seen. On the twenty-first of July, 
and after the law had passed for the sale of the third and fourth 
bonds, a negotiation was opened by the bank with the Secretary 
of the Treasury for the sale of those bonds, and again, as apjieai-s 
by the above stateiuents of the Secretary of War, tlio same 
appeals were made to him, and the same desire expressed that (he 
payments by the bank might be made in the disbursements of his 
department. Being convinced that payments in that manner 



832 Life and Times of Silas Wriget. 

would, by the bank, be made an essential condition in the nego- 
tiation, the Secretary expressed his willingness to accept the pay- 
ments as desired, provided such an arrangement should meet the 
approbation of the Secretary of the Treasury. 

" On the twenty-third day of July Mr. Macalester reopened 
the negotiation with the Secretary of the Treasury, for an arrange- 
ment as to the payments upon the second bond, which negotiation 
was continued open until the fifteenth of August, when it was 
closed, by an agreement that that bond should be paid in three 
monthly installments of equal amounts, and that the drafts of the 
Treasurer, for the money, should be met by the bank, at the places 
where they should be made payable, which places, and the amount 
of drafts to be drawn upon each, constituted a material part of 
the treaty. 

" If, now, we bear in mind that the same mode of payment of 
the purchase-money for the third bond was the object of the 
collateral negotiation carried on with the Secretary of War, 
anterior to the purchase of that bond by the bank, we shall be 
able to understand the facts, without the danger of becoming 
confused by blending the two distinct transactions. The Secre- 
tary of War tells us that, being convinced it was necessary to a 
favorable issue of the pending negotiation for the sale of this 
third bond, he entered into the stipulation to have the proceeds 
of this bond devoted to the disbursements of the War depart- 
ment; to have the payments made at stipulated places in the 
south and west, in stipulated amounts at each place, and to draw 
but about §500,000 monthly from this source, upon the condition 
that the Secretary of the Ti*easurv should consent to the arrangre- 
ment; that he supposed the matter was subsequently submitted 
to the Secretary of the Treasury, and concurred in by him, and 
he now thinks the agent of the bank closed the contract for the 
purchase of the bond with this understanding, and that the suc- 
cessful tei-mination of that negotiation, in a great measure, 
depended upon that collateral arrangement. He also expresses 
his full conviction of the necessity of the sale of this bond for 
the successful prosecution of the affairs of government intrusted 
to his charge, ' on which, at that particular period, the peace and 
character of the country so essentially depended.' 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. fS:J:i 

" Not a Senator in these seats can, for a momcMit, mistake the 
important and delicate interests to w lii.li the Secretary ol' War 
refers in using this language. None liere can forget tlie intense 
interest felt throughout the whole country in the successful 
removal of the numerous and powerful tribes of Indians from 
the south and south-western States. None here are ifrnorant of 
the vast sums of money the government had stipulated to pay to 
extinguish the title of these Indians to their lands witliin the 
States, to pay the expenses of their removal, and to subsist them 
at their new homes; and none anywhere who know anything of 
the Indian chai'acter can be ignorant of the necessity of having, 
at the moment, the money stipulated to be paid to or for him. 
If money is due to the Indian, he must have money; and he must 
have it when you have stipulated to pay it, or your business trans- 
actions with him are at an end. You cannot tell him of embai-- 
rassments or disappointments. You cannot talk to him of credit, 
beyond the letter of your bond, and retain his confidence. Who, 
then, will be surprised at the anxiety manifested, and the respon- 
sibility assumed by the Secretary of War to secure, by the sale 
of this bond, the requisite funds in the treasury to accomplish 
that complete removal of these great tribes which has been 
accomplished during the past year, and which does, and will, 
reflect so much honor upon that capable and persevering public 
servant ? 

" I am aware that some of the correspondence would seem to 
imply some misunderstanding betweA the Secretaries of the 
Treasury and of War, in relation to this collateival arrangement 
as applied to the proceeds of the third bond, and the correspond- 
ence renders it more than probable that the one or the other had 
labored under a misapprehension, and had interpreted verbal con- 
versations intended to be applied to the mode and manner of 
payment of the third bond as relating to the mode and manner 
of making the anticipated payments upon the second bond. Still, 
the facts show that the agent of the bank made these stipulations 
essential to the closing of his contract in both cases, and that he 
was authorized to believe that they were understood by all the 
parties to constitute a component part of that contract. The 
facts also show that the money to be derived from both negotia- 
53 



834 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

tions was indispensable to the healthful operations of the public 
treasury, while national interests of the gravest character depended 
upon the ability of the treasury to redeem the plighted faith of 
the country. 

"What, then, I ask, Mr. President, with some confidence, is 
the judgment to be rendered upon these transactions ? Are the 
executive officers of the country to be censured and condemned for 
having entered into any negotiations with this bank in relation 
to the payment of these bonds, and the supply of an exhausted 
treasury from that source ? And, if so, upon what ground ? 
Had Mr. Woodbury said to Mr. Biddle, ' I, sir, am opposed to 
your bank; the political party to which I belong, and with which 
I act and feel, are strongly opposed to it, and I will not, therefore, 
negotiate with you about your bonds; I will not sell to you upon 
any terms, be the consequences what they may; my political 
hostility, and the hostility of my political party, forbid that I 
should have any business transaction with you ; ' had our Secre- 
tary of the Treasury taken this course, and failed to realize the 
money upon the bonds, in time to meet the calls upon the treasury, 
as in that event he must; and had we returned here and found 
the Creeks and Cherokees not removed from Georgia, Alabama 
and Tennessee; the military force withdrawn from Florida for 
want of subsistence; the western and northern frontiers unguarded 
and the public works abandoned, what would have been the pub- 
lic judgment upon the conduct of the Secretary then ? What 
would have been the judgment of this body ? Who then would 
have stood up here to defend the conduct of the Secretary of the 
Treasury, and who to accuse and condemn him ? 

" Sir, so broad and untenable ground as this will not be assumed ; 
but it may be said that the informal and collateral understanding, 
to which the Secretary of War was a party, has vitiated the trans- 
actions and gives cause for censure. Let us, for a moment, look 
at the facts. The money could be realized upon the bonds, in 
time to meet the wants of the treasury, from no other quarter 
than this bank. It could not be realized from the bank but by 
consenting to these collateral arrangements as to the times, places 
and manner of payment. The money was to be placed in the 
bank, ' in special deposit,'' to the credit of the Treasurer, and it 



Life and Times of Silas Wrigut. ^35 

was so placed. Upon the strength of this (h'posit the Troastirer 
was to draw his drafts for the public disbursements in stipuhited 
amounts, and make them payable at stipulated places, and, wiiii- 
out presentment at the bank, it was to pay them at those places 
'm S2)ecie or its e<2uivalent,'' and there is no allegation thai they 
were not so paid. The places oL' payment were naiuL-d by the 
heads of the departments which had the superintendence of the 
disbursements, as were also the sums to be paid at each, and both 
with a strict reference to the wants and convenience of the public 
service ; and it has not been asserted that inconvenience or loss 
arose to that service from either, while the contrary is positively 
shown by both the reports under consideration. The negotiation 
for the sale of the third bond was closed, and the money paid, 
on the first of August; and that for the payment of the second 
bond, and the first installment paid, on the fifteenth of the same 
month. On the thirteenth, two days before the last payment 
mentioned, the bank resumed specie payments, so that, however 
much these negotiations may have contributed to. that highly 
desirable result, the bank became a specie-paying bank before a 
single draft upon the money in deposit to the credit of the 
Treasurer could have passed from the hands of the oflicers and 
agents of the government, if any such drafts bad been drawn at 
that period. 

"These are the facts, and would they have justified the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, even supjjosing him to have known and 
assented to the collateral stipulations as to the manner of pay- 
ment for the bond sold, in refusing to accept the terms offered by 
the bank, and thus to have incurred the consequences to which I 
have before alluded ? I think not, Mr. President ; but, as my 
task in reference to this part of the connection between the 
government and the Pennsylvania bank is performed, as I liave 
recounted the facts and the history of the transactions, I know 
tediously, but I hope faithfully, I cheerfully leave the Secretary 
of the Treasury, and all the other actors in them, to the judgment 
of the Senate and the country. If condemnation is to follow, I 
only desire that the judgment may rest upon the truth, and that 
I have attempted to exhibit. 

" Another connection has been formed between the government 



836 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

and this bank, which is represented as still more alarming and 
ominous than the one from which we have just passed. I con- 
gratulate the Senate, and certainly myself, that the facts, in this 
latter case, are concise, simple and plain. I propose, therefore, to 
read them all to the Senate ; first seeing out of what relations 
they have arisen. 

" The Bank of Kentucky was one of the deposit banks, under 
the laAV of 1836, 'to regulate the deposits of the public money.' 
It, with almost all the banking institutions of the country, sus- 
pended specie payments in May, 1837, then having a very large 
amount of the public money in its hands, for which it could not 
account according to law. This bank availed itself of the pro- 
visions of the law of the extra session of Congress of 1837, 
granting time for payment to the deposit banks at their option, 
and gave bonds to secure the payment of the amount due from it 
to the treasury in three equal installments ; the first to be paid on 
the 1st day of July, 1838, the second on the 1st day of January, 
1839, and the third on the 1st day of July, 1839, with six per 
cent interest. The installment due in July, 1838, was paid, and 
nothing more was due ixpon the bonds until the first day of the 
present month. Still, under date of the 5th day of September, 
1838, the president of the bank wrote to the Secretary of the 
Treasury as follows : 

" ' I shall, during the course of the present week, remit to you a check on 
Philadelphia, for ,$300,000, in part payment of the debt due by this bank.' 

" Under date of the tenth September, the president of the bank 
again writes from Louisville, Kentucky, to the Secretary, in the 
following words : 

" ' Sir. — I hand you, inclosed herewith, a check on the Bank of the 
United States, Philadelphia, in your favor, for $300,000, intended as a pay- 
ment on the amount due the Treasurer of the United States by this bank.' 

"On the seventeenth day of September, McClintock Young, the 
chief clerk in the Treasury department, and, at the time, acting as 
Secretary of the Treasury, during a temporary absence of the 
Secretary, acknowledges the receipt of the check mentioned in 
the above note from the president of the Bank of Kentucky, in 
the following language: 



Life and Times of Silas Wrioht. 837 

" ' Sm. — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the tenth, with 
its inclosure. I have specially directed the check for !{;;jOO,000, (h-awii by your 
cashier upon the Bank of the United Slates, in favor of Levi Wootibury, 
Secretary of the Treasury, to be placed to the special credit of the Treasurer 
of the United States, with whom all accounts are kept, and to wIkhii :ill 
payments and transfers of balances of that kind sliould be made. Whether 
the bank will consider my indorsement sufficient for lh:it purpose, remains 
to be seen.' 

" On the same day Mr. Young, acting in the same character, 
writes to the cashier of the Bank of the United States of Penn- 
sylvania, at Philadelphia, as follows: 

" ' SiK. — The inclosed check has been this day received from the Bank of 
Kentucky; and I will thank you to place the amount ($:}00,000) to the spe- 
cial credit of the Treasurer, and acknowledge the receipt of the sum to 
him.' 

" The request of Mr. Young was complied witli by the bank, 
and the amount of the check placed to the special credit of the 
Treasurer of the United States upon its books. These are all 
the facts in this case, and, from them, some see a most dangerous 
and alarming evidence of a disposition, on the part of the 
executive officers of the government, to reunite the treasury 
of the country to this banking institution, in its new character 
of a State bank. Is such a conclusion fairly deducible from 
the premises? The Bank of Kentucky was, at this perioil, 
indebted to the United States in the sum of about $600,000. 
No part of the amount was due until the 1st of January, 1S39, 
and therefore the officers of the treasury w^ere not authorized to 
expect remittances from that quarter, until the receipt of the 
notice from the president of the bank on the fifth of September. 
In five days from the date of that note the draft followed, which 
must have been before the notice could have reached the Treasury 
department. On the seventeenth of September the draft comes, 
in the absence of the Secretary of the Treasury. It is drawn 
payable to him in his individual and official name, and is upon 
the Pennsylvania bank. Was it wrong in Mr. Young to take a 
draft upon that bank in payment of a debt due to the treasury, 
provided it should be duly honored? Much as I have and do 
dislike that institution, I am not prepared to say that the officers 
of the government would be justified in visiting it with that 



838 Life and Times of Silas Wbight. 

measure of proscription, and I do not suppose any will pronounce 
censure upon that act. Mr. Young took the check and acknow- 
ledged its receipt in the language above quoted, informing the 
president of the Bank of Kentucky that it ought to have been 
made payable to the Treasurer, not to ' Levi Woodbury, Secre- 
tary of the Treasury,' and that he did not know whether the 
Pennsylvania bank would consider his indorsement sufficient to 
warrant the payment of the amount to the Treasurer. He must 
send the check to the bank to determine this point, and he must 
send it there for collection. The bank was then holding a large 
sum on deposit, to the credit of the Treasurer, as the proceeds of 
the bonds, and was meeting the drafts of the Treasurer for dis- 
bursements, at a greater number of points, and to larger amounts, 
than any other banking institution in the country. The money 
to be realized as the proceeds of this draft would be as valuable 
at Philadelphia as at any point in the country, and more valuable 
than at any other points except New York and Boston ; and for 
disbursements in the south and south-west, it would be even 
more valuable at Philadelphia than at the latter place. There 
were no general deposit banks holding public money under the 
deposit law of 1836, to which the proceeds of this draft could 
have been transferred, without depreciating the funds, and 
placing them more inconveniently for public use. By what obli- 
gation of duty, then, was the Secretary of the Treasury called 
upon to transfer this amount at all, for the mere purpose of safe- 
keeping? Will it be pretended that the money was unsafe in 
the Pennsylvania bank ? I presume not. Little as is my con- 
fidence in the institution, in any sense, it is not yet so per- 
fectly impaired as to enable me to believe that this money 
is not secure, for the short time it may remain in its vaults, before 
it is called out for the use of the public creditors. I cannot, as 
yet, by my public acts, express such an opinion of this bank. 
Why, then, I again ask, was the Secretary to withdraw the money 
from that resting place but for purposes of public disburse- 
ment? That bank was, at the time, a depository of public 
money of a special character, and for a temporary purpose and 
period, but it was making disbursements and meeting the drafts 
of the Treasurer, and was therefore a convenient location, so far 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 8"-3!) 

as the public service was concerned, for ihis inDiioy. Tf ilic Sec- 
retary had transferred it, he must cither have placed it in some 
other bank, which was also a depository of a special clianu^ln-, 
holding the trust, like this bank, by the selection and :it tliu 
pleasure of the Secretary, and not under the law of 18:U), ov to a 
general deposit bank inconveniently located, and whei-e the 
money would be less valuable. Was it his duty to do eilla'r; 
and, if so, upon what ground ? Not to secure the safety of the 
funds, because they were as safe where they were as in any place 
it was in his power to place them. Not to make the money more 
valuable, because it was at a point where it was as valuable for 
public disbursement as any point which the country presented. 
Not to promote the convenience of the public service, because 
that convenience was best consulted by leaving the money where 
it was. He did not put the money in this bank. It was to be 
paid to the Treasurer there; it was paid to the Treasurer there, 
and there the Secretary of the Treasury, acting through his chief 
clerk, Mr. Young, left it in safe-keeping until the wants of the 
treasury should call it thence. This is his fault, if fault he has 
committed. Was he, then, bound to transfer this money, merely 
to show his hostility against this particular banking institution 'i 
If transferred at all, it must have been transferred to some other 
bank, for neither the laws of Congress nor tlie practice of the 
department authorized the Secretary to transfer the proceeds of 
this draft to any public officer of the country, simply for the 
purpose of safe-keeping. Was the Secretary of the Treasury, 
then, bound to transfer these funds to a general deposit bank, 
where their value to the public would be diminished, or to some 
other special deposit bank of his own selection, not for any pur- 
pose of public utility, but merely to show the hostility of himself 
and his friends toward this particular bank? This is the plain, 
direct and simple question presented, and this the issue formed in 
relation to this deposit in the Pennsylvania bank, 

" It may be, Mr. President, that blame to the Secretary of tlie 
Treasury, and blame to other executive officers of the country, 
should proceed from this transaction. It is not my province, nor 
is it my desire, to pronounce the judgment which the Senate or 
the people will form. It is enough for me that I have exhibited 



840 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

the facts fully, and presented these consequences, which were 
unavoidable in any course the Secretary might have chosen to 
take. That being done, I leave the matter to this body and the 
country, with a respectful confidence that the motives of that 
officer will be spared, in any event, who has had the magnanimity 
to sacrifice his personal feelings and strong hostilities to the profit 
and convenience of that branch of the public service committed 
to his charge, 

" I now pass, sir, to a very difierent branch of the facts pre- 
sented in the case before us. I refer to the published letter of 
Mr. Biddle, the president of the Pennsylvania bank, which has 
been adduced to the Senate as evidence of the improper connec- 
tion between the government and his bank. The paragraph of 
that letter to which I particularly allude is in the following 
words : 

" ' In the month of July the government agreed to receive an anticipated 
payment of tlie bonds of the bank to the amount of between $4,000,000 and 
$5,000,000, in a credit to the Treasurer on the books of the bank — and 
arrangements were made for the more distant pubhc disbursements in the 
notes of the bank. These arrangements, as honorable to the executive 
officers as they were beneficial to the public service, brought the government 
into efficient co-operation for the re-establishment of the currency, and 
opened the way to a resumption of specie payments. The resumption 
accordingly took place throughout the middle States on the thirteenth of 
August, and in many of the southern and western States soon after.' 

" If I have been at all successful in my exertions hitherto, the 
Senate now fully understands the whole afiair of the ' anticipated 
payment of the bonds,' and is able clearly to judge how far this 
brief and easy mention of a compliance, on the part of the officers 
of the government, with the repeated and untiring solicitations of 
this bank to arrange the payment of one of these bonds partly 
by anticipation, and to sell another of them to the institution, 
from an utter inability to find another purchaser in the markets 
of the whole world, makes a true representation of the facts of 
the case to the mind of the reader, — how far the public, to 
whom this letter is given by its author, would be likely to be 
impressed with the truth from this assumed representation of it. 
An agreement to make payment in a 'special deposit' to the 
credit of the Treasurer is converted into an agreement to antici- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. S4I 

pate the payment of the bonds 'in a credit to tlie Treasiiier on 
the books of the bank,' while the certificate of the bank of the 
special deposit is a matter of record in the Treasury (hp.irt nu'iii. 
An agreement to pay 'm specie or its equivalent^ an iii\ ;irial)lu 
qualification to all the stipulations, is converted into ' ruianirc- 
ments' 'for the more distant public disbursements in ilir notes 
of the bank.' This is the evidence from this source, and muIi is 
the witness upon whose testimony before the country, vidunta- 
rily given, our highest executive officers are to be condennied 
unheard. How far this witness is supported by the facts I most 
cheerfully leave the Senate to determine; but I must, on lu'liall' 
of the officers concerned, protest against the compliment so con- 
fidently and so injuriously forced upon them by the president of 
the bank. They can bear the hostility of this institution but 
they cannot bear its praise, and most certainly not when that 
praise is shaped — as it is in this part of the letter from which I 
have read — to suit the views of a malignant opponent. 

" To give to the writer of the letter, however, all the founda- 
tion which possibly can be claimed for his statement of the facts, 
I will detain the Senate to make a few references to another docu- 
ment. I refer to the message of the President, of the ninth instant, 
in answer to a call from the Senate for all orders and instructions 
issued by heads of departments, heads of bureaus and the Post- 
master-General relative to the kind of money and bank-notes 
which might be paid out on account of the United States, since 
the 14th day of April, 1836. The message communicates 
answers to the call from all the heads of all the departments 
and bureaus who have issued any such orders or instructions 
within the period mentioned, but the present purpose does not 
require that I should refer to any other than those from the 
Secretary of War and the heads of bureaus in that deparlinent. 
These references shall be as brief as the occasion will permit, 
and it is here also my intention to let these officers speak, princi- 
pally, for themselves, 

"The Secretary of War, in submitting to the President the 
answers to the call from his department, says: 

" 'In submitting these reports, it is proper to remark that the circulars 
from the Paymaster's, Quartermaster's, Engineer and Indian departments, in 



842 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

October, were issued at a period which required the exercise of great forbear- 
ance and discretion in the management of the fiscal operations of this depart- 
ment, in order to avoid, as far as practicable, embarrassing the money concerns 
of the country. I had been informed, from credible sources, that a rigid exac- 
tion of specie to meet all our disbursements in the south and west would 
retard the resumption of specie payments, embarrass the operations of those 
banks that had resumed, and prove seriously prejudicial to the interests of 
commerce in that portion of the country. 

" 'Influenced by these impressions and acting under these views, which I 
had urged upon all branches of the department, these circulars were issued, 
and in some respects exceed what was intended; and upon being brought to the 
notice of the present chiefs of bureaus they have modified them so as to ren- 
der the instructions more strictly and distinctly conformable to existing enact- 
ments. At the same time it must be borne in mind that the Bank of the 
United States was, at the period of issuing the circulars, a specie-paying 
bank; and that to have exacted specie from the banks in the south and 
west which were indebted to that institution, or in which it had deposited 
funds to meet the drafts of the treasury for war warrants, would not only 
have been of no aid to the public service, but would have inflicted iujuiy 
alone upon those banks and been prejudicial only to the trade of the south and 
west!' 

" Here we have tlie views of the Secretary, and the motives 
and policy by which he intended to be governed in the adminis- 
tration of the affairs of his department. The time was one of 
great difficulty. The banks of the north and middle States had 
resumed specie payments and those of the south and west were 
struggling to reach that desirable point. The disbursements of 
his department were to be principally made in the south and 
west; and the drafts of the Treasurer for that purpose were, by 
the arrangement with the Bank of the United States in relation 
to the payment of two of its bonds, to be met, to much the great- 
est extent, by that institution. The supposition of the Secretary 
was natural and necessary, that those drafts would be met by calls 
upon its debtor banks in those sections of the Union wdiere the 
payments were to be made, and by deposits of funds in the banks 
there. Hence his proper and laudable anxiety, so far as an observ- 
ance of the law and of the unquestioned rights of the public 
creditors would permit, to make those heavy disbursements in a 
manner the least injurious to the banking institutions, the trade 
and commerce, and the business generally of those sections, and 
so as, in the least possible degree, to 'retard the resumption 



Life and Times op Silas Wright. 84:i 

of specie payments' in the south .and west; and lience, too, lio 
urged these views and this policy 'upon all llic hiaiichcs of tlie 
department.' Still, he tells us that the orders and instructions 
issued by some of the heads of bureaus in the department 'in 
some respects exceed what was intended.' 

"Satisfied that the motives of the Secretary, as avowed l»y 
himself, must be i;niversally approved, and that the policy he 
adopted for the government of his department was proper and 
right, so far as it was wisely pursued and proiicrly carried out, 
I now proceed to refer to such of these 'orders and iiist nidions ' 
as, if any, must be considered exceptionable. The first, in the 
order of time, is a direction given by the Secretary himself, in 
relation to the payment of pensioners. The date of this circular 
is May, 1837, the month in which all the banks of the country, 
comparatively speaking, suspended specie payments, and is in 
the following language: 

" 'In the present state of the currency, and during the general suspension 
of specie payments, it would be unjust to tlie pensioners to witliliold from 
them the means of purchasing the necessaries of lite, by a rigid adliercnce 
to the letter of the law. The agents, therefore, will be authorized to pay 
them in such currency as the receivers demand and are willing to consider 
an equivalent for specie.' 

"This order furnishes upon its face the best justification of 
which it is susceptible, and, therefore, without a single other 
remark, I pass to the circular of the Chief Engineer, which bears 
date 6th October, 1838, and is in the following words: 

'"SiR._It will conform with the understanding existing between the 
department and the depository banks, that whenever your payments on the 
public account cannot be made by checks on the banks, a tender of the 
notes of the bank on which the treasury draft was drawn will Ijc made, and 
that in no case specie be exclusively exacted, unless the notes of said bank 
will not be received by the public creditor. 

" ' The observance of this rule will be of general accommodation, and be 
sustained by the department.' 

" This is one of the ' orders ' to which the Secretary expressly 
applies the remark, in his report above quoted, that they ' in some 
respects exceed what was intended.' It will be proper here to 
add that, under date of the 20th October, 1838, the head of the 
Indian bureau issued a circiilar in the precise language of this 



844 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

one, and that the present heads of both these bureaus, when the 
existence of these directions from their respective branches of 
the department were made known to them, instantly so modified 
them as to bring them within the express and unquestioned terms 
of the existing laws in reference to the disbursement of bank- 
notes. 

"A circular from the office of the Paymaster-General was issued 
under date of the 8th October, 1838, which is as follows: 

" ' SiK. — Arrangements having been made with the United States bank to 
pay the Treasurer's drafts to a certain amount at diiferent places, and it 
being probable the notes of that bauk will be as acceptable to claimants, 
and in some cases more convenient than specie, you will, should you receive 
drafts on that bauk or its agents, make as many of your payments by check 
as you can, which will give the receiver the option of taking paper or specie; 
and the department has no objection to your using the paper of that bank 
in all your payments, so far as it can be done legally.' 

" The only other of these ' orders and directions ' to which I 
propose to refer was issued from the oifice of the Quartermaster- 
General, and bears date 31st October, 1838. Its language is : 

" ' Whenever remittances on the public account are made to you by the 
Treasurer of the United States in notes of the United States Bank of Penn- 
sylvania, or by drafts of that institution on local banks or agents, it is desir- 
able that, instead of demanding specie from the local banks or agents, you 
receive from them and disburse the bills of said " Bank of the United States," 
in all cases when such bills may be entirely satisfactory to the individuals to 
whom payment may be made.' 

" The Quartermaster-General states that this circular was sent 
to but eight oflicers of that department, and that, understanding 
a construction had been given to it to authorize the payment out 
of notes of less denominations than those allowed by the law of 
the 14th of April, 1836, those officers were immediately instructed 
that the direction was to be construed in conformity with that 
law, and not otherwise. 

" The number of orders and directions transmitted with the 
message of the President is very great; but, upon a careful perusal 
of them all, I consider those referred to above the only ones which 
have material reference to the disbursements to be made under 
the arrangements with the bank, and all which go a step to show 
that the bills of the bank were agreed to be disbursed, as a part 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 845 

of these arrangcraents. And now, Mr. President, permit nie lo 
ask how far any of these orders authorize tlie assertion of tlic 
president of that iustitiUion that ' arrangements were madu for 
the more distant public disbursements in the notes of the bank?' 
We have seen that the arrangements between tlic Secrel.'irv of 
the Treasury and the bank, in fact, were thai tlie payments 
should be made ' in specie or its equivalent^ and so far as the 
collateral stipulation witli the Secretary of War may be consid- 
ered a part of those arrangements, that the same medium of pay- 
ment was required and agreed to be made by that also. In these 
negotiations, then, there were no 'arrangements made for the 
more distant public disbursements in the notes of the bank,' or 
for any disbursements, near or distant, in those notes, any further 
than they might be considered embraced in the terms equivalent 
to specie ; and how far that might be would, of course, in all 
cases, depend upon the will and choice and estimation of the 
public creditor to whom payment was to be made. It will cer- 
tainly not be pretended that orders from the head of a depart- 
ment or a bureau, containing simply directions for the govern- 
ment of the subordinates of that branch of the service, can 
change the terms of these contracts, or give to either parly rights 
which were not conferred by tlie contracts themselves. If 
' arranscements were made ' between the executive officers and the 
bank ' for the more distant public disbursements in the notes of 
the bank,' the right was conferred upon the latter to make those 
disbursements in such notes, independent of any relations or 
rights between the government and its creditors, and a tender 
of the notes would be good payment as between the government 
and the bank. Is such a right pretended or claimed by the bank, 
growing out of the arrangements for the sale and payment of its 
bonds ? It has not been and is not. On the contrary, if no such 
' arrangements ' were made or right conferred by the contracts, 
then nothing in the ' orders and directions ' from the heads of 
departments and bureaus to the disbursing officers could make 
the one or confer the other. In this aspect of the case, there- 
fore, the president of the bank was not authorized by the facts 
to say that ' arrangements were made for the more distant public 
disbursements in the notes of the bank.' 



846 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" While upon this part of the case, another inquiry should be 
made. Did these ' orders and directions ' assume to confer upon 
the bank the right to make disbursements in its notes ? I here 
most freely express my dissent from the policy and practice indi- 
cated by some of these circulars. The Secretary tells us that 
some of them, ' in some respects, exceed what was intended ' by 
him, and I think some of them go beyond a sound and safe rule. 
I cordially concur in the views and policy upon which the Secre- 
tary acted, as expressed by himself; but I think some of the 
circulars go much farther, and, instead of adopting a policy which 
was calculated to hasten the resumption of specie payments in 
the south and west, and to restore the currency to a sound state 
in those sections of the Union, must, if continued in force and 
acted upon, have had a strong tendency in the opposite direction. 
Did they, however, assume to confer the right to make public 
disbursements in bank-notes? Not one — not even the broadest 
of them. They urged the policy of making disbursements in 
that medium, ' so far as it can be legally done,' ' in all cases 
where such bills may be entirely satisfactory to the individuals to 
whom payment may be made ;' ' unless the notes of said bank 
will not be received by the public creditor,' etc. Thus, in all 
cases, deferring to the option of the public creditor, and to his 
legal rights, the question of making disbursements in bank paper. 
The orders, therefore, did not assume to confer the right to make 
'public disbursements in the notes of the bank,' and even they, 
broad and indefensible as some of them seem to me to be, do not 
bear out the president of the bank in the declaration referred to. 
Yet this individual goes on to say, ' these arrangements, as 
honorable to the executive officers as they were beneficial to the 
public service, brought the government into efficient co-operation 
for the re-establishment of the currency, and opened the way for 
the resumption of specie payments.' What ' arrangements ' are 
here referred to ? Evidently those spoken of in the previous 
sentence of the letter, ' for the more distant public disbursements 
in the notes of the bank.' Having shown that no such ' arrange- 
ments ' had been made between ' the executive officers ' and the 
bank, I may be permitted to hope that those worthy officers will 
not be made to suffer in the public estimation under the blight- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 847 

ing influence of the compliment so grutuitously bestowed u])<)ii 
them. 

"Here, Mr. President, suffer me to ask, wliy do you lliiiils this 
letter of Mr. Biddle was given to tlie public? Was it, <lc) you 
believe, to bestow credit upon the executive officers of tliis gov- 
ernment, or to manifest his connection witli and attachment to 
this administration? If this was the motive, some of his aide 
and sagacious friends upon my right must feel surprise at liis 
want of sagacity. They tell us, almost daily, that the cause of 
this administration is a sinking cause ; that ours is a falling house, 
and they must deeply regret that this sagacious banker should 
now conclude to join his fortunes, and those of his institution, to 
such an interest. Sir, these gentlemen will tell you that no such 
desires and objects have given this letter to the light. Was it, 
then, to speak of the negotiations between those executive 
officers and the bank, and to do them justice in that particular? 
No, sir. No. In my opinion no such negotiations have prompted 
this letter, but certain negotiations which the sagacious Avriter 
foresaw were about to take place at Harrisburg, in his own State, 
were the moving causes to this public address, in the shape of a 
letter to an individual correspondent. The bank had been too 
deeply concerned in the singular political transactions which 
were agitating a great State. Success began to be doubtful, and 
a change of position, in advance, was found to be advisable. 
Hence these quiet and peaceful declarations, and these amicable 
appearances toward ancient enemies. Hence this abandonment 
of mercantile speculations, and this neutrality of posture in refer- 
ence to future events. From considerations like these, sir, I 
believe this letter was written, and not from any change of feel- 
ing or spirit on the part of the writer, or the institution over 
which he presides. 

"I must ask a little more of your time, Mr. President, upon 
this letter. The writer says the transactions between the gov- 
ernment and the bank, of which I have spoken so elaborately, 
'brought the government into efficient co-operation for the 
re-establishment of the currency, and opened the way to a resump- 
tion of specie payments ! ' The arrogance of this expression is so 
excessive as to excite no other emotion than that of ridicule. 



848 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

That the government had been, from May, 1837, not co-operating 
with the bank, but efficiently operating against the irredeemable 
policy and declarations of the bank and its president, 'for the 
re-establishment of the currency,' is now matter of history ; that 
the ' arra,ngements ' to which the letter refers, and which the 
wants of the public treasury, occasioned by the suspension of 
the banks, and the legislation of Congress consequent thereupon, 
compelled, were calculated to enable the bank the more easily to 
pay its debts to the government, and thus to abandon its irre- 
deemable doctrines and policy, when, by the action of other 
State institutions, they had become no longer sustainable 
with a preservation of credit, and to place itself upon the 
list of resuming banks, is most likely. Mark dates and 
facts. The negotiation for the sale of the bond of 1839 
was completed and closed on the 1st of August, 1838. The defi- 
nitive offer of the Secretary of the Treasury for the anticipations 
and mode and manner of payment upon the bond of 1838 was 
dated on the 25th of July, 1838, and the broad acceptance of 
that offer by the agent of the bank was of the day following. 
By this offer and acceptance the first installment of $800,000 was 
to be paid on the fifteenth day of August, and all the payments 
upon both 'arrangements' were, by the terms of the same, to be 
made 'in specie or its equivalent.' How, then, were the notes of 
the bank to be made applicable to these payments ? Could it be 
done short of a resumption of specie payments by the bank, so 
as to make its notes, in form at least, 'equivalent to specie?' 
What do the acts of the bank show to have been its sense of its 
own course and policy under these circumstances ? It' resumed 
specie payments on the thirteenth of August, thirteen days after 
the payment was made at the bank for the bond of 1839, but 
before the drafts upon that deposit would be returned upon it 
in any considerable amounts, and two days before the payment 
of the first installment upon the bond of 1838. Did these trans- 
actions authorize the president of the bank to say that by them 
the government was brought into efficient ' co-operation ' for the 
re-establishment of the currency? Into efficient co-operation 
with whom or with what? With an institution which had 
resisted with all its immense power the resumption of specie 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 849 

payments, the only measure by wlueh the currency could be 
re-established; which was a debtor to the government to nearly 
$8,000,000, and which was compelled to ask time for payment of 
one, two, three and four years; which found its extended obliga- 
tions falling due so near the period when specie payments must 
be resumed, or its credit destroyed, that it was driven to the 
'executive officers' to seek terms of payment which would enable 
it to perform that high duty? Efficient co-operation with such 
an institution and by such means? Need I say, sir, that the 
arrogance of the assumption is only equaled by the closing sen- 
tence of the paragraph ? 

"Let me read it to you, Mr. President. Here it is: 'The 
resumption accordingly took place,' where do you suppose, sir? 
The banks of the whole Union had suspended specie payments 
in May, 1837. This immeasurable calamity was visited upon the 
whole country, and now the president of the largest and most 
powerful bank in the Union is telling us of the resumption, of 
the return of the banks to their legal and moral obligations. lie 
has before given us his exposition of the causes which brought 
about this great and good result, and now he says ' the resump- 
tion accordingly took place,' Again I ask you, sir, where do you 
think it took place, and when? He shall tell you: 'Throughout 
the middle States on the thirteenth of August, in many of the 
southern and western States soon after.' What, let me ask you 
as one of the representatives of that section of the Union, what 
became of the humble northern and eastern States in this happy 
annunciation to the American people ? Were they not worth the 
notice of the president of the bank ? Or did he not know that 
this same glorious work of resumption, for which he says the wmj 
was opened in August, had taken place in those States, and was 
triumphantly sustained against his power and the power of the 
giant institution over which he presided, from one to three months 
before the period of which he speaks — before that 'way 'was 
opened which enabled the State national bank to come in, by a 
forbearance of its debts and an accommodating compromise as to 
the manner of their payment? 

"Sir, I am ready to relieve you from this course of remark, 
54 



850 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

and to dismiss from my consideration such testimony coming 
from such a source. 

"I am also most happy, Mr. President, to be able to assure you 
that I will very soon relieve the Senate from a continuance of any 
remarks upon this subject. One or two brief topics remain to be 
considered and I have done, at least for the present. 

" In the course of the debate which the subjects under con- 
sideration have excited, my peculiar personal attention has been 
called to the language used in the law authorizing the sale of the 
bonds of this bank. That language is that the bonds shall be 
sold ' for money in hand,' and I believe I was the draftsman of 
the law. I have, upon a previous occasion, and when thus called 
upon, stated to the Senate my best recollections as to my inten- 
tion in the use of the terms quoted. I had not then made a 
recent examination of the law, and I spoke from memory wholl3\ 
I now find no cause to change what T then said, that it was my 
intention the bonds should be sold for cash, if sold at all, but I 
find that the disposition of that ' cash,' intended by the com- 
mittee, was fully explained on the face of the bill, and that I am 
now only called upon to read to the Senate the second section of 
that law, as it was reported and passed, to make this point per- 
fectly intelligible to all who hear me. That section is in these 
words : 

" ' And be itfurilier enacted, That all money received upon the sale of the 
said bonds shall be immediately paid into the treasury of the United States, 
or placed to the credit of the Treasurer thereof in some proper depository, 
in the same manner that other moneys, received from dues to the govern- 
ment, are, by law, directed to be paid into the treasury.' 

" It will be recollected that but one bond was sold, and, in 
reference to that, how was the money paid ? I have already read 
to the Senate, from the documents appended to the report of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, the certificate of the bank, showing 
that the proceeds of this bond were placed in that institution, 
' in special deposit,' to the credit of the Treasurer of the United 
States. Was that bank, then, a ' proper depository ' in a legal 
sense, and within the meaning of the law above quoted? We 
have seen that there were no general deposit banks under the law 
of 1836, or banks which could be selected under that law, to 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. fsf)! 

answer the purposes of the treasury. We have also seen that 
neither the law nor the practice of the Treasury department 
authorized the Secretary to transfer money to the hands of indi- 
vidual officers of the government for the mere purpose of safe- 
keeping. Plence, the Secretary has been compelled to select banks 
as special depositories, without reference to tlie deposit law, in 
cases where money comes into the treasury, as in the case under 
consideration, not in the ordinary course of collection, but with- 
out passing through the hands of an authorized collecting officer. 
The authority of the Secretary to select and use these banks for 
these purposes is the same which authorized the use of banks by 
the Treasury department, from the commencement of the goveru- 
ment, under the Constitution, and the organization of such depart- 
ment, up to the charter of the late Bank of the United States in 
1816, and from the removal of the public deposits from that bank 
in 1833 until the passage of the deposit law in 1836. In his 
selections, under this authority, there are no restrictions of law 
upon the officer ; and if, therefore, depositories so selected are, in 
a legal sense, ' proper depositories,' then 1 am unable to discover 
why this bank was not as proper a depository of the proceeds of 
these bonds, within the meaning of the second section of the 
laAV for their sale, above quoted, as any otiier bank which the 
Secretary could have selected would have been. 

" Some objections have been made, that the Secretary of the 
Treasury has, in his annual report, confounded, by the use of 
language, the character of the deposits made in the various banks 
on public account, and rendered it difficult to tell in what con- 
dition the public money is, or how it is, in fact, kept. I have 
taken some pains to inform myself upon these points, and the 
inferences which I had drawn from the reading of the annual 
report have been confirmed by the explanations of the Secretary. 
The terms ' general deposit ' are used by him in reference to those 
moneys deposited in banks selected under the deposit law of 1836. 
The terms ' special deposit ' are mostly used in their technical 
sense, as a deposit of the specific thing, the identical money, or 
currency, delivered to the bank for safe-keeping ; and the terms 
' deposit to the special credit of the Treasurer,' are used to denote 
such deposits as are neither 'general' nor 'special,' within the 



852 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

techuical meaning of the other terras, but as are made in banks 
selected by the Secretary, under his general powers, before referred 
to, and are placed there subject to the drafts of the Treasurer, 
with a notice, and distinct understanding, that they are to be 
drawn for at an early day, and are not, therefore, to be used by 
the institution holding them for the general purposes of banking. 
The remarks of the Secretary upon these points, in the report 
under consideration, give substantially these explanations. They 
are as follows : 

" ' The arrangements made with the banks that hold special deposits, or 
depostits to the special credit of the Treasurer, have been regarded as 
temporary in their nature or character, and have, in most cases, therefore, 
been informal. It having been expected that Congress would, at an early 
day, adopt some general system that could be carried into practical effect, 
on the subject of keeping the public money, and comparatively few col- 
lections having been made, except in treasury notes and treasury drafts, 
since the suspension of specie payments, till within the last three months 
the department has deemed it most respectful to Congress to abstain 
from adopting any uniform and permanent arrangement on the subject of 
deposits in banks, not selected under the general deposit act, but to use 
them, for the present at least, only as necessity should require.' 

" And again : 

" ' In cases of deposits in bank, made specially, the money has, in some 
instances, been placed in specie, in boxes, fastened up, and not to be with- 
drawn by the receiver or others, without the draft of the Treasurer on him, 
payable at the bank where the special deposit was made. In other cases 
it has been placed in specie, or bills of specie-paying banks, to the credit 
of the Treasurer, sometimes as in "special deposit," and sometimes as "in 
deposit to his special credit," and allowing the bank to have entire charge 
of it afterward.' 

" From this language of the Secretary, as well as from the facts 
in the case of the bonds, it is inferable that deposits, in their 
inception special, in the bank sense of that term, have been sub- 
sequently changed in their character, by making such deposits 
the basis of drafts by the Treasurer, wliich were paid by the 
bank, on presentment, as drafts upon general deposits are usually 
paid. Indeed, the Secretary tells us, in his annual report, that 
' this system of special deposits, or of deposits to the credit of 
the Treasurer, has, from convenience, and indeed almost fi'om 



Life axd Times of Silas Wuiuut. s.'):? 

necessity, not generally corresponded with the iisiiul rurnis of 
special deposits.' 

"It is quite possible that the Secretary of the Treasury has not 
upon all occasions, in reference to these matters, used the lan- 
guage technically appropriate to tlie occasion, and it is ecpially 
possible that he may have committed errors of judgment in tlif 
multiplicity of his arduous and most perplexing duties; but when 
the trying period through which the country has passed undiu- 
his administration of the Treasury departtnent shall be remem- 
bered and appreciated, I desire to be no more confident of any- 
thing than I am of the fact that he will have no cause to com- 
plain of the verdict which an intelligent and patriotic and grateful 
people will render upon his pul)lic services. None of us here, 
Mr. President, can have failed to see that it is much easier to find 
fault than so to act, in a responsible public trust, as not to deserve 
censure, much more so as not to receive it, wliether deserved or 
not. It now seems to be fashionable to complain of the Secretary 
of the Treasury, but we should be willing to do justice even to a 
political adversary; and none will, none can, deny that ]Mr. Wood- 
bury has managed the finances of the country, tlirough one of 
the most difficult periods in our national existence, with a degree 
of success before altogether unknown under similar embarrass- 
ments. Sir, we have had similar embarrassments before, and 
with what result? We had a suspension of specie paymen'.s by 
the banks in 1814, not as general as that of 1837, and when and 
how were specie payments restored ? After a continuance of 
three years, by the aid of a national bank. When and how 
have these payments now been restored ? After a continuance 
of one single year, and principally, as I verily believe, by a 
sound and firm administration of the national fiiuinces ; by a 
rigid and unyielding adherence, in all national receipts and pay- 
ments, to that standard of value erected by our glorious Con- 
stitution, and which, if not scrupulously observed by the gov- 
ernment in times of pecuniary trouble, cannot be continued as 
a standard of value for the country. I know, Mr. President, 
there have been many patriotic and good men who have sin- 
cerely believed, during the late derangements in our currency, 
that specie payments could never be resumed by the State 



854 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

banking institutions, and the currency ve-establisbed at the proper 
constitutional standard, without the aid of another national bank. 
I have been one of those who have uniformly believed that, if the 
operations of the national treasury were not suffered to be brought 
down by the general depreciation, but were kept up to the 
standard of gold and silver, the whole circulating medium would 
speedily be raised to that level; while I have as firmly believed, 
if that standard for the public treasury was surrendered, there 
would be an end of anything like a fixed and permanent standard 
of value, until financial embarrassment, commercial suifering and 
universal derangement in every department of business should 
drive the whole people to call in the aid of some artifical power 
to assist in erecting it. The soundness of the former opinion is 
now demonstrated. The standard of currency for the treasury 
has been preserved at the constitutional elevation, through the 
whole of our late troubles, and the consequence has been that, 
without any other aid, a universal resumption of specie payment 
has taken place within little more than one year, and business is 
reviving, at least as rapidly as can consist with firm and enduring 
health. For all these great and good results, as well as for the 
great success with which the treasury has been managed and its 
wants supplied, during these severe embarrassments, I speak the 
solemn convictions of my judgment when I say that no man in 
the country deserves more credit than the present Secretary of 
the Treasury; and when the political prejudices and party con- 
flicts of the day shall have passed away, I verily believe that 
history will accord to that faithful and laborious ofiicer even 
greater praise than I attempt to bestow upon him. 

"Mr. Weight having concluded, Mr. Rives replied at length; 
after which 

"Mr. Weight said: Before I proceed to notice the arguments 
of the honorable Senator, you must permit me, Mr. President, to 
make a single allusion to his opening observations, and it is the 
only remark of its character which I intend to make in the course 
of my brief reply. I heard, with unfeigned pleasure, the declara- 
tion of the Senator that it would give him sincere gratification 
if the conduct of the executive officers, in the transactions alluded 
to, could be fully justified. But for that remark I should have 



Life and Times of Silas Wriqut. S.j.i 

been constrained, from the matter ainl manner of lln- arsjcuiiiiMit, 
to suppose that the honorable gentleman enterLaiiK;(l ;i real desire 
to convict them of impropriety of intention and a<li.)ii. His 
declaration, however, deserves full credit, and such aro nut his 
feelings. 

" Pie complains that I have not answered his argunicnls, ui- uu-i 
the issues tendered by him upon former occasions. I su[»pose<l I 
had said all which I could usefully say upon the whole matter; 
but I will now reply to some of his positions of to-day, even at 
the risk of repeating, substantially, what I have already said, and 
I take this occasion to promise the Senate, after its e.vtended 
indulgence to me already, I will not be tedious in the perform- 
ance of this undertaking. 

" The gentleman's first and principal point is, that the sale of 
the bond of 1839 to the bank was illegal, because it was practi- 
cally sold upon credit, when the law authorizing the sale requireil, 
in express terms, that it should be made for ' money in hand.' 

" To this I have simply to reply that we have seen what were 
the terms and conditions of the sale, and that one of them was 
the payment of the whole purchase-money on the first day of 
August, by placing the amount in special deposit in the bank to 
the credit of the Treasurer of the United States. We have also 
seen among the documents, appended to the report of the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, one from the cashier of the bank, in the 
following words : 

" ' Bank op the United States, August 1, 1838. 
"'I hereby certify that Charles Macalester, Esq., has this day deposited 
to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States, m special dejMsK, the sum 
of two million two hundred and fifty-four thousand eight hundred and 
seventy-one dollars and thirty-eight-ceuts, subject to the drafts of the said 
Treasurer. ^^ , ^ COWPERTHWAIT, 

" ' Cashier: 

"Now, this paper is either true or false. If true, then the pay- 
ment was made according to the terms of the agreement, for the 
sale of the bond was made in ' money in hand,' which money 
was, by the very act of payment, disposed of as the second sec- 
tion of the act referred to required. Does any one doubt the 



856 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

truth of the certificate? Does the gentleman himself doubt that 
this amount of money was in the bank, as its property and sub- 
ject to its disposition, at the time the certificate was given? 
Bad, Mr. President, as is the authority of this bank and its offi- 
cers with me, upon most subjects, 1 do not believe that one of 
them would issue a false oflicial and responsible j)aper of this 
character, nor do I believe that the cashier was ignorant of the 
nature of a 'special deposit' or of the import of the facts to 
which he certified. Any collateral understanding existing at the 
time, as to the manner in which the Treasurer should dispose of 
this money, or in which the bank might by making certain other 
payments discharge itself from its liability thus incurred for this 
deposit, could neither destroy the fact of the payment nor alter 
the character of the deposit at the time when the certificate was 
given. But suppose, sir, that this certificate was false at the 
time it was given. Then the whole transaction was void from 
the fraud practiced upon the Secretary, and the legal property 
in the bond did not pass to the bank by the delivery, as that 
delivery was in consideration of the certificate and it was the 
only evidence of the value received. Upon this supposition, 
therefore, the bond was not sold, and that could not be an illegal 
sale which was not a sale at all. 

" The honorable Senator next takes the position that the trans- 
action was a disadvantageous one to the government, because 
that out of the proceeds of the bond, deposited as we have seen, 
the bank was to answer drafts of the Treasurer for the use of the 
War department to the amount of but $500,000 monthly, while 
the statements from that department show that its wants were 
equal to 1 1,000,000 per month. 

"This position is susceptible of several answers. First, the 
bank would agree to no more favorable arrangement, and the 
Secretary of the Treasury must consent to withdraw the deposit 
at the rate of |500,000 monthly or he must forego the sale of the 
bond altogether, and thus get nothing from this bond in aid of 
the treasury, as no other purchaser could be found who would 
pay the price fixed by the law. Second, the gentleman has over- 
looked the fact that payments were making at the same time 
upon the bond of 1838, at the rate of $800,000 per month, so that 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 857 

from both sources the l)ank would more than mout wlial ho says 
were the necessities of the War department. Third, the proceeds 
of these bonds were not all the means of the treasury; tlic wlu>h- 
current revenue remained, besides other del'erred (h'lits; :iiid 
what the War department should require, which the bank was 
not to pay, it would be the duty of the Secretary of the 'rreasury 
to supply from these other sources. 

"Another ground assumed by the honorable gentleman is that 
the bonds might have been, and should have been, sold abroad, 
and tlint a special agent should have been sent al)road to nego- 
tiate the sale; and then he infers that the Secretary of the Trca- 
sury" was not driven to make the sale to the bank, had he pursued 
properly the course which the law pointed out. 

"I have before shown, generally, what the Secretary did do 
by way of effecting a sale of these bonds abroad, and, from the 
results of those efforts, had he any encouragement to pursue 
them further? This is the fair question, when we are discussing 
the faith and intentions of the officer. In May, pending the pas- 
sage of the law and almost immediately upon its introduction 
before Congress, the Secretary wrote to a banker of higli stand- 
ing in each of the cities of Philadelphia and New York to inquire- 
as to the prospect of a sale of the bonds, at home or abroad, 
within the terms proposed to be prescribed. They both answer 
him, substantially, that, upon the terms of the bill and without 
a guaranty, no sale could probably be effected in tliis country 
unless to the bank itself. Mr. Solms, the president of the Moya- 
mensing Bank, of Philadelphia, gave it as his opinion that a 
favorable sale of the bonds might be made in England, and 
seems to rest that opinion upon the then state of the English 
money market and the fact that the agent of the bank in London 
would, he thought, be induced 'by weighty considerations' to 
become a purchaser. This is the only direct opinion favorable 
to the sale of those bonds abroad which I have found among the 
papers, and this seems to have been formed at least as much 
upon the expectation that the bank itself would be the purchaser 
as upon any other consideration. This gentleman, therefore, did 
not propose to free the Secretarv from a sale to the bank by 
seudino; him to London for a market. 



858 Life and Times oi Silas Weight. 

" Mr. Newbold, the president of the Bank of America, New 
York, says: 'The bonds have too short a time to run to warrant 
any reasonable expectation of a sale of them in Europe, on favor- 
able terms, during the present rate of exchange,' 

" After the passage of the law, the Secretary immediately wrote 
to the house of N. M. de Rothschild and Sons, bankers, of Lon- 
don, and requested them, if possible, within tlie restrictions of 
the law, to make sale of the bonds. They declined to purchase, 
for reasons which I have before stated, and say that a sale upon 
the terms prescribed cannot be effected in London. I cannot 
speak from personal acquaintance as to the propriety of the 
Secretary's selection of his English correspondents for this object, 
but I understand the house to be among the first banking-houses 
in London, and suppose it will be conceded by all that there is 
no fault in the course of the Secretary in this respect. 

" He also wrote, without delay, to our minister at Paris, and 
requested him to consult the best bankers in France, and effect a 
sale of the bonds there, if it could be done within the limits of 
his authority. As the gentleman has commented upon the 
unsatisfactory character of the reply from this quarter, I will 
read a part of Governor Cass's answer. He says: 

"'But Mr. Welles sought information from the bankers, and his views 
may be depended ou. He states that, after examination, he found it impos- 
sible to obtain an acceptable proposition, because, in the first place, the 
bonds are too large, and because, in the second place, bankers who made an 
offer would necessarily be compelled to hold themselves in readiness to 
comply, after information of the result should be obtained from the United 
States ; and would thus be bound, for many weeks, to have the money within 
their control, while, in tiie meantime, some event might occur to change 
the state of the money market, and thus to embarrass them. Mr. Welles 
was decidedly of opinion that a better arrangement might be made in the 
United States than here. Under these circumstances, and placing confidence 
in his representations, I do not think that the object could be effected in 
Paris, upon such terms as you would approve.' 

" Could the Secretary, after such an opinion, coming from such 
a source, and based upon such authority, longer hope to find, in 
France, a market for these bonds within the limitations of the 
law ? Can his motives be suspected because he relied and acted 
upon such evidence ? 



Like and Times of Silas Wright. 859 

"The Secretary further, immediately after tlie passage of the 
law, opened a correspondence with a Mr. Belmoiil, of Vcw Voik, 
an agent resident there of extensive banking-houses in Lon<lon 
aud Paris. This correspondence was continued from the uintli 
to the twenty-first of July, and resulted in an entire decliualion 
to purchase the bonds, witiiiu the restrictions of tlie law, either 
for himself or for account of his principals in Europe. 

"But, says the honorable Senator, the Secretai-y ought to have 
sent an agent to Europe to negotiate a sale of the bonds, and not 
to have depended upon the uncertainty of correspondence. I 
have shown that an effort was made by the Secretary to employ 
an agent soon after the passage of the law, but that the person 
applied to, conceded by the gentleman to be qualified and com- 
petent, declined to accept the compensation ottered by tlie Secre- 
tary — eight dollars per day and necessary expenses — and 
demanded a commission of one-fourth of one per cent upon the 
amount of the bonds, if a sale was made, and the pay and mile- 
age of a member of Congress, if he should fail in the mission. I 
have made, upon my table, a hasty casting of the amount of this 
commission demanded by the agent, and, if I am not mistaken, 
it is, upon both bonds, a trifling fraction below $10,000. This 
expense the Secretary did not feel willing to incur, in any event; 
while the prospect of a sale did not seem to him to authorize the 
pay and mileage of a member of Congress, for a journey from 
this country to England and France, and the return, simply to 
make the experiment. He did not, therefore, send the agent. 
In this he may have erred, for it is not my purpose to prove that 
the Secretary is perfect, or exempt from error. This point I 
cheerfully leave to the decision of tliis body and the public. My 
rnily anxiety is, that the whole truth shall appear before the 
decision is pronounced; that it shall be distinctly known that the 
bond was sold at the par value, as fixed in the law, and that 
every dollar of the proceeds has paid a dollar of debt against the 
public treasury, without any deduction of 110,000, or any other 
sum, for the expenses of negotiating that sale. If, then, the 
conclusion shall be that the Secretary has brought the govern- 
ment into improper connection with a hostile bank by the nego- 



860 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

tiation, it must be admitted that he has saved this |l 0,000 to the 
treasury of his country by the operation, 

" The Senator next says, there is no evidence of the necessity 
of the sale of this bond at all, and indicates an opinion that 
it is the duty of the Secretary, and of those who are willing 
to apologize for his acts, to show that necessity before they 
attempt to justify the sale he made. To the Senator's argu- 
ments upon this position 1 have several answers. First, the 
Secretary has himself stated that the calls upon the treasury 
for the month of June 'had exceeded 14,500,000;' that 
he anticipated, ' as the fact turned out to be,' that those 
calls would equal about $7,000,000 for the two following 
months of July and August ; 'that the available balance 
in the treasury, applicable to general purposes and sub- 
ject to draft, fell below $1,000,000 ; that payments were 
making, at times, in new treasury notes, which could not be 
rendered at all available ; ' and that, therefore, he considered 
it ' necessary to eifect a sale of at least one of the bonds, at 
an earlier day than advices could be received and any proceeds 
realized from Europe.' This was the state of the treasury, and 
the exhibition of its necessities, from the head of that depart- 
ment ; and I, sir, have been accustomed to place confidence 
in statements upon that point, from that authority. Second, 
the law authorizing the Secretary to issue treasury notes for 
the supply of the treasury expressly limits that power to its 
necessities, after all the other lawful means of supply have 
been exhausted. Hence the sale of the bonds became a duty, 
before the credit of the government, in the shape of these 
notes, was resorted to ; while the only power existing to issue 
notes, at the period of these transactions, was the power to 
issue new notes, under the law of 1838, in the place of those 
paid in and canceled under the law of 1837 ; and it was, in 
the nature of things, impossible for human foresight to say 
how rapidly the old notes would come in, and, consequently, 
what might be the extent of the power, within any given 
period, to issue new notes. Third, the apparent balances of 
money on deposit in bank, to the credit of the Treasurer, afibrd 
no standard by which to form a judgment as to the amount 



Life and Times of Silas Wrkiiit. 861 

of available means of the treasury on ;vny o-ivcii day, Ix-causo 
those balances were constantly made tlie basis of clr.ifis I)y the 
Treasurer, which, the Secretary tells us in (he correspondence, 
would necessarily be out from thirty to ninety days, bd'oi-d 
they would come round to the l)ank to be tiiere debited lo llic 
Treasurer, and deducted from the amount standing to his (iiMlii 
upon the books of the bank. These are believed to be I'lill 
and perfect answers to the positions taken by the Senator to 
show that a necessity for the sale of the bond diil not exist. 
The condition of the treasury, therefore, at the time the sale 
was made, appears from the statement of the Secretary above 
given, unimpeached by the considerations to which the Senator 
has referred, and which he seemed to suppose inconsistent 
with it. Is, then, the officer having charge of the Treasury 
department to be taken as authority for the state of the trea- 
sury, its wants, and its necessities, at any given period ? With 
me, sir, he is. The honorable gentleman lias made repeated 
appeals to me upon this point, as chairman of tlie Committee 
on Finance of this body, and I cheerfully admit that the vigi- 
lance of his researches and the minuteness of his inquiries 
may have shown him much better qualified for the head of 
that committee than myself; but I candidly tell him and tlie 
Senate, that, in the discharge of my duties in the position I hold, 
the statements of the proper officers of the government, as 
to the condition of the treasury, have been authority to me, 
so far as facts and figures are concerned. Until the facts and 
figures, therefore, coming from that quarter, shall be shown 
to be erroneous, I recognize no right to call upon me to sustain 
their accuracy. 

" The Senator further says, the issues of treasury notes were 
not made by the Secretary in the most advantageous manner; that 
a rate of interest might have been given to them which would 
have enabled the department to command specie for them in the 
market, and would have induced capitalists to iiold tlicni as 
investments until they became redeemable by the law, and, there- 
fore, ceased to bear interest ; and he contends that the Secretary 
ought not, therefore, to be permitted to urge his apprehension 
that the new treasury notes would come in for redemption, in 



862 Ltfr and Times of Silas Wright. 

the way of payments upon the public dues, as causing a necessity 
for the sale of this bond. It is not for me to contend that tlie 
Secretary of the Treasury is all-wise as a financier, or that the 
issue of these treasury notes in some other form and manner 
might not have afforded to the treasury greater temporary relief. 
It is enough for my purpose that the Secretary acted in good 
faith and according to his best judgment, and issued the notes in 
the manner which he believed best calculated to afford to the 
treasury and to the country the relief intended by the law ; that 
they were issued, were out, and were returning upon the treasury 
for redemption, in the shape of payments of the x'evenue, at the 
time the law passed authorizing tlie sale of these bonds. The 
necessity from this quarter did, therefore, in fact exist ; and the 
experience of the department, by the payment by the bank of 
the first bond, paid in 1837, almost wholly in treasury drafts and 
other like government liabilities, enabled the Secretary to judge 
with certainty of the extent of the necessity growing out of this 
consideration. Had he then rested quietly until these bonds 
reached maturity, depending upon their proceeds for money to 
meet the public disbursements, and then met payments in unavail- 
able treasury notes, notes which could not be reissued for any 
purpose, what would have been thought and said of his financial 
skill or official faithfulness ? Or, if he had sat down and mourned 
over the fact that the notes had not been originally issued in 
some different manner, would that have supplied his exhausted 
treasury ? 

" A further complaint of the honorable Senator is, that the pro- 
ceeds of the draft upon the Pennsylvania bank for $300,000, 
transmitted by the Bank of Kentucky, in part payment of its 
debt to the goverment, were permitted to remain on deposit in 
the former institution until they were required for disbursement ; 
and he asks, with great emphasis, why was not this sum trans- 
ferred to some other depository ? Why not to the Bank of 
America, at New York ? Why not to any place other than this 
bank, to which the Secretary and his political friends had been so 
hostile ? I am not aware, Mr. President, that I can say anything 
which I have not already said upon this subject. I have ah'eady 
shown that this money was as valuable to the treasury, as con- 



Life and Times of Sthas Wright. 863 

venient for its use, and as safe, where it was left, as it could have 
been made in any other depository ; and, in the face of these 
facts, if it were perfectly respectful, I would answer the gentle- 
man's queries by asking him why should the Secretary liave 
transferred this money until required for disbursement ? For 
what public interest or object? Had he transferred it, was there 
any possible reason he coidd have assigned for the act other tlian 
his own hostility, and that of his political party, to this bank? 
And would the Senator from Virginia have advised the Secretary 
to put himself upon such a defense, for such an act, either before 
this body or the country ? 

" I am here compelled, Mr. President, to make a remark in self- 
explanation and justification, and I am sorry to find that, in this 
debate especially, the most precise and clear definitions are 
rendered constantly necessary. The gentleman says, in my 
former remarks I termed this Pennsylvania bank 'a proper 
depository,' and he repeats the phrase with an evident design to 
carry the implication that its use by me was the manifestation 
of a change of feeling on my part toward the institution. 
Sir, the gentleman could not have failed to notice that I 
was speaking of the second section of the law authorizing tlie 
sale of these bonds, in which the terms ' proper depository ' are 
used; that I was examining the legal power and right of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, in the present state of the law in rela- 
tion to the public deposits, to select this institution as a deposi- 
tory for the proceeds of these bonds; that I came to the conclu- 
sion that the Secretary possessed the legal power and right to 
make this selection, as much as that of any other banking insti- 
tution not a general deposit bank under the deposit law of 1836; 
and that this bank, therefore, in a legal sense, within the powers 
of the Secretary and the meaning of the second section of the act 
for the sale of the bonds, was, when so selected, ' as proper a 
depository for that especial purpose as any other which could 
have been so selected.' These were my words, or their sub- 
stance, and I used tlie phrase which the Senator has so frequently 
repeated in no other sense or connection. If he was not before 
aware of my meaning, in the use of these terms, I now oflfer him 
this explanation and definition of it. 



864 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

"A further objection, brought by the honorable gentleman 
against the Secretary of the Treasury, is, that the public interest? 
were disregarded by depositing this |300,000 in this bank; inas- 
much as, had the deposit been made in a general deposit bank, 
under the deposit law of 1836, of suitable capital, an interest 
might have been obtained upon the deposit for the time it 
remained in bank. If this objection, Mr. President, is to be con- 
sidered as developing the policy of the deposit law of 1836, I am 
bound to say that it will make that measure more objectionable 
to me than it has ever before been, unfavorably as I have ever 
viewed it. What is the provision of that law referred to ? That 
the bank shall pay an interest, at the rate of two per centum per 
annum, upon all money remaining on deposit with it, for one 
whole quarter of the year, over and above an amount equal to 
the one-fourth part of the capital of the bank actually paid in. 
Now, sir, to have placed this $300,000 upon this investment of 
two per cent, a bank of the very smallest capital must have been 
selected, so that the largest possible excess might have existed, 
upon which interest would be payable, while that part of the 
deposit which equaled one-fourth of the capital of the bank, 
actually paid in, must have been suffered to remain three full 
months to* entitle the treasury to a recurring interest of two per 
cent upon the average excess. I have ever thought, sir, that to 
make a bank pay interest upon public deposits was the most 
direct mode to stimulate those institutions to use the public 
money for banking jDurposes, and, therefore, the worst possible 
policy which any government. State or national, could possibly 
adopt ; but if, in addition to this insurmountable objection, the 
consideration of capital paid in, as a security for the deposit, is to 
be abandoned, and the Secretary of the Treasury is to be required 
to select the banks of the smallest real capital, that the largest 
amount of the public money upon deposit may be drawing inter- 
est, the tendency of the system of State bank deposits, as 
adopted and established by the deposit law of 1836, is infinitely 
worse than I have heretofore considered it to be. And if the 
Secretary of the Treasury is to receive public censure, here or 
elsewhere, for not acting upon this dangerous principle, I must 
stand closely by him and share in the condemnation. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 805 

"The Senator has considered it to he his duty to make very 
especial and marked reference to the letter of Mr. liiddlc to the 
Secretary of the Treasury, written under date of tlie i;{lh of 
August, 1838, to be found among the documents, at pages 3(j and 
37 of the report of the Secretary, marked F 7, and infers from it 
that some correspondence between the Secretary of War and i\\v. 
bank, not communicated to Congress, must liave taken phice, in 
reference to the arrangement for paying the Itaiik bonds in dis- 
bursements for the War department. The honoral)le gentleman 
has called upon me, in my seat here, to answer to any knowledge 
I may possess as to such a correspondence, and I I'raiikly stated 
to him and the Senate that I neither know anything of it, nor do 
I find the least reason, from this or any of the documents, to sup- 
pose that any such correspondence ever took place. If he and 
the Senate will have the goodness to look to the letter from the 
Secretary of War to Major Cooper, the then acting Secretarj^, 
written from the Virginia Springs, and to be found with the 
documents appended to the President's message, in answer to the 
last call of the Senator, it will be seen that all the arrangement 
upon this subject which the bank has claimed, or which even sus- 
picion has alleged to have been attempted, is there fully avowed 
by the honorable Secretary, and its prompt and honorable fulfill- 
ment is respectfully urged upon the treasury officers. I cannot, 
therefore, possibly see what motive is left for concealment, or 
why any correspondence of a private character should be sup- 
posed to have been wrongfully withheld, in relation to an arrange- 
ment completed, avowed and carried into full execution. 

" The gentleman seems further to apprehend that I, and those 
with Avhom I act here, have changed our views and feelings in 
relation to the dangers of a national bank, and the dangerous 
character of a State institution, so powerful as that of which we 
speak. Mr. President, he mistakes us utterly. We have expe- 
rienced no change of feeling or opinion upon either of these 
points. I say willingly and cheerfully that I listened to some of 
the remarks of the honorable gentleman, in relation to the dangers 
of institutions of either character, with unmixed delight. I 
rejoiced to hear him refer to the former expressions of opinion of 
the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Calhoun] upon these sub- 
55 



866 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

jects, and to declare his increasing convictions in their justice and 
truth. Let him continue to be governed by these opinions and 
feelings, in reference to these matters, and he need not make 
himself more sure of anything, in the whole course of his life, 
than he may now be of the fact that I, and those who think and 
act with me here, will be found with him, side by side and 
shoulder to shoulder, rendering him our feeble aid and support in 
any wars in which he may be engaged in the prosecution of such 
principles. 

" I have but a single other remark, Mr. President. The Senator 
has made repeated allusion to the time I have taken to prepare 
for the debate of this day. Sir, I pretend to no extraordinary 
powers of intuition. I require preparation to address this body, 
and my great fault is that I do not sufficiently prepare for so 
responsible a duty. Yet I must be permitted to think that such 
remarks, coming from that gentleman, should not have been 
made without qualification. He may not have known that the deep 
interest of a large number of the members of the Senate, in a 
measure depending before the body (the land graduation bill) at 
the time when this debate was introduced by himself, induced 
me and others to consent to postpone the further consideration 
of this matter until that measure could be definitively disposed 
of; but such was the fact. The Senator did knoio, however, 
upon whose request the postponement for the last week had taken 
place, and I thought I had a right to expect that he would not 
have made remarks calculated to charge that delay upon me." 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 867 



Chapter LXXVII. 

DISTRIBUTING BOOKS AND CONSTRUCTIVE MILEAGE. 

The temptation to participate in plundering the public, 
and especially under plausible or disguised names, has 
often proved too strong for many members of Congress. 
The book plunder has usually been carried under the 
pretext of promoting some approved object. Congress, 
on various pretenses, has purchased, or authorized the 
subscription to large and sometimes enormous publica- 
tions, to be distributed among members of Congress, such 
as Gale & Seaton's Annals, Debates and State Papers, 
Gideon's Archives, Blak & Rives' Congressional Globe, 
Elliott's Debates, Madison's Papers, Madison's Writings, 
Clark's History of the Bank of the United States, and 
Contested Elections, Geological Surveys, Schoolcraft's 
Book on Indians, and many other works — all useful in 
their way, but not more needed by them than by citizens. 
But Congress under the Constitution has no power to 
purchase or procure such books to be given to its members, 
to become their individual property. Most of the votes 
for these distributions are disguised thus : "that the mem- 
bers of this Congress, who have not received them, be 
supplied with the same books as the members of the last 
Congress," or in a similar manner. Few imagine that 
under such a resolution many thousand dollars are voted 
away, and that the members described receive, each, 
books costing from one to two thousand dollars. Many 
of these books have been long out of print. When 
ordered, the bookseller procures them of ex-members at 
a low price. One set of books has often served to satisfy 
the demand of a large number of members. The books 



8G8 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

were shown to members and receipts taken, and then 
they were told that a person referred to would pay so 
much for them, which offer is accepted, the money pock- 
eted and the books left to serve the same purpose with the 
next caller; and so with all who will consent thus to sell. 
Few ever receive and take away the books voted to them. 
The abuse of thus voting books is not likely to cease 
while it adds hundreds and sometimes thousands of dol- 
lars to the compensation of members. 

It is traditional about the capitol that Mr. Wright 
never consented to receive such books. In the appro- 
priation bill passed at the second session of the twenty- 
fifth Congress there was this provision for books, viz.: 
"For the balance due on account of the first volume of 
the Documentary History of the United States, $5,602; 
and the Secretary of State is hereby authorized to deliver 
to the Secretary of the Senate forty copies of said work, 
and the Clerk of the House of Representatives 368 copies 
of said work, to be distributed to each of the members of 
the Senate and House of Representatives of the twenty- 
third, twenty -fourth and twenty -fifth Congresses who are 
not entitled to receive the same under former resolutions 
or acts of Congress." 

Mr. WRiaHT, by direction of the Committee on 
Finance, moved to strike it out. Mr. Webster and 
others opposed. Mr. Wright thus briefly presented his 
views adverse to the purchase and distribution, March 1, 
1839: 

"Mr. Weight said, if the Senator from Massachusetts thinks I 
am not aware of my responsibility, or that I fear to meet it, he 
does not know me. Mr. W. thought the time was come when 
the Senate should make a stand upon this subject, and said the 
responsibility of defeating the bill, if it was lost, would rest with 
those who had incorporated this provision into it. Mr. W. went 
on at some length in opposition to the practice of appropriating 
money for the purchase of books and distribiiting them among 



Life and Times of Silas Wiaaiir. SOI) 

themselves, and trusted that the Senate would not cuuuleiiaucc 
it any longer." 

There being no quorum present tlie sulrject went over 
until tlie next day, when the distribution provision wiis 
negatived by a vote of 29 to 3, the nays being Davis, 
Southard and Webster. 

The principle involved in this case came before the 
Senate again when the civil and diplomatic bill was up, 
on the 4th of May, 1840. A provision had been inserted 
in tlie House appropriating $15,000 for the purchase of 
Clarke and Force's Documentary History of the Revo- 
lution. By direction of the Committee on Finance, Mr. 
Wright moved to amend the bill by striking out this 
provision. During the discussion on this amendment, 
which passed by a vote of 20 to 8. 

"Mr. Wbight observed that his anxiety to get the action of 
the Senate on this bill would, he was sure, be appreciated by the 
Senator from Massachusetts. The bill liad only come to thoin 
to-day, and this w\as a very late period of the session for the pas- 
sage of a bill on which so many interests of the country depended. 
He thought, from the disposition of the body to adjourn over, 
if it was not acted on to-day, it would not probably be acted 
on this week. Mr. W. then adverted to the urgency for a 
speedy action on tliis bill. In addition to the vast number of 
persons employed about the seat of government, and many others 
who had not received any compensation for tlieir services since 
the first of January, the courts of justice were now sitting in 
several of the States, and in the Senator's own State particu- 
larly, and they had no means to pay their jurors, witnesses, etc., 
until this bill passed. The committee had, under these circum- 
stances, felt it their duty to press its passage with all convenient 
speed, and had therefore made very few and simple amendments, 
such as Avould not consume time in the other branch of Congress. 
If it was the pleasure of the Senate to take up the bill now, it 
would certainly be gratifying to the committee." 

Constructive mileage, although confined to Senators, is 
an abuse of a similar character, which seldom occurs 



870 Ljf^ ^^^ TmEs OF Silas Wright. 

except every fourtli year, on the coming in of a new 
President. The ontgoing executive convenes the Senate 
by proclamation to meet on the fourth of March, so as to 
be ready to act on such nominations for new cabinet offi- 
cers and others as the new President may wish to make. 
Such Senators as were in the previous Congress receive 
their pay and mileage before or at its close. Having no 
time to do so between the close of the session on the third 
of March and the meeting on the fourth, they do not 
return home. In strict law they may possibly (but we 
doubt it) be entitled to mileage for coming and returning, 
although in fact they do not devote any time or spend 
any money in doing so. This untraveled journey, never 
performed when paid for, is called "constructive mile- 
age." Many receive it ; but it comes to us as a tradition 
and is undoubtedly true, that Mr. Wright, although 
tendered to him when Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Harrison 
came in, refused to receive it, because he thought he had 
not earned it. This shows how extremely conscientious 
he was in public as well as in private matters. 

Mr. Wright's Letter to Mr. Tilden. 

On the 11th of December, 1838, Mr. Elam Tilden 
addressed a letter to him, the contents of which will be 
inferred from the following extract from his answer, dated 
twenty- sixth December of that year : 

" You have my thanks for your interesting history of the meet- 
ing, and your son (Samuel J.) deserves and will receive the hearty 
thanks of all true democrats and lovers of their country for his 
fearless honesty in rebuking a traitor in the midst of his assembled 
friends, and of those whom it was his design to mislead and 
deceive. I am not sure that we shall not be driven to this course 
of addressing the people, face to face, to counteract the frauds 
and falsehoods of the swarms of agents which the money of our 
opponents sends forth as lying spirits throughout our State, and 
I am fully satisfied, were our people prepared for such a course, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. STl 

that discussions by our honest and capable men, face to fact- witli 
these profligate emissaries and traitors from our ranks, \V(miM .Io 
more than anything else to rebut their falsehoods and ivsiorc 
the public mind to a knowledge of the truth. 

" Your suggestion as to some proposition to be made to our 
Legislature, the more effectually to punish frauds, bribery and 
perjury at the polls, is a wise and proper one. The President 
(Mr. Van Buren) made the same suggestion to me at our first 
interview after I reached here. I have communicated witli some 
of our friends at Albany upon the subject, and think the matter 
will be cared for." 



872 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter LXXVIII. 

THE INDEPENDENT TREASUEY BILL BECOMES A LAW. 

Early in the first session of the twenty-sixth Congress, 
January 6th, 1840, Mr. Weight again brought forward 
the independent treasury measure, by reporting a bill 
creating a treasury disconnected with banks or private 
agencies. The Senate had thrice passed this measure, 
which had as often met defeat in the House. Now the 
political character of the House was changed and favor- 
able to this measure of the administration. The bill 
again underwent a long discussion, in which Mr. Wright 
participated. It was passed in the Senate on the 23d of 
January, 1840, by a vote of 24 to 18. It passed the 
House on the first day of July by a vote of 124 to 107. 
The President approved and signed it on the fourth. 

The following are the remarks of Mr. Weight on the 
bill at this session : 

" Mr. Wright said he had no personal desire to press the 
action of the Senate on this bill ; and, if at liberty to consult 
his own inclinations in this matter, his course would probably 
be what the Senator from Kentucky had so kindly intimated 
it ought to be. As a member of the committee which had 
reported the bill, his action on it was already discharged. He 
must, in candor, say to the Senator, he could make no motion 
to postpone, nor was he at liberty to vote in favor of any post- 
ponement. It was for the Senate to determine, in accordance 
with what they deemed to be their duty, on the course to be 
pursued in relation to the suggestion of the Senator from Ken- 
tucky. This is the fourth session of the Senate, stated and 
special, since this measure was presented here ; and I cannot 
forget that, though it had twice passed this body, it had failed 
to receive, practically, any consideration in the other branch 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. S7:J 

of the Legislatuve. That body at present, from peculiar circum- 
stances, is a full month behind its usual advancement in Icj^is- 
lative business. As to the vacancies in the Senate allude<l to, 
he had not calculated the number of the friends or oii])()ii('iils 
of the measure; but, from the Senator's own enuineratioii, \\v 
thought there would be little change in their comparative 
strength, if the vacancies were all filled. In three days, he was 
induced to believe, he would have the consolation — and lie 
hoped he might be permitted to say to the Senator that it woul<l 
be a consolation — of having a colleague on this floor \\\\>> 
would,. doubtless, intend to represent truly tlic views ;iii<l wishes 
of their common constituents on this measure. The final action 
of the Senate on the bill would not be had until after his arrival. 
Mr. W. said that, under instructions from the committee, wlien 
the bill was reported, he had given notice that he would call it 
up yesterday. Why it was not then taken up is well known to 
the Senate. Whether they will now call it up rests with Senators 
to determine. 

"Mr. Wright said he had nothing more to say in reference to 
the time when the bill is to be brought under consideruLion. 
But he would reply to one remark of the honorable Senator in 
reference to the introduction of the bill into this body. I am 
bound to say that I concur fully with him in the change, the 
great change, which has taken place in the last ten years in the 
legislation of the two Houses of Congress, and I agree witli liim 
that this change is to be regretted. But he did not think that 
the Committee on Finance were responsible for the innovation. 
This is not even an appropriation bill. There is a small appro- 
priation for carrying it into effect, but not touching in any way 
the raising of revenue. But, at the first session I was here, and 
it was a short session, two most important bills were passed, 
one for the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, and 
the other the so-called compromise bill ; one of them with an appro- 
priation most important, and the other came at least very close 
on a bill to raise revenue. Both these bills were introduced here 
by the Senator from Kentucky, and I believe that was one great 
step to the change of which he complains. I do not say this m 
the way of censure, but to defend the committee from the charge 



874 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

of oriffinatino- the innovation alluded to. The circumstances in 
which the other branch were at present, and the course which 
had prevailed for some years past, were, in his estimation, a suffi- 
cient justification of the committee for departing from this rule." 

The debate was renewed on the twenty-fifth of Febru- 
ary. The remarks of Mr. Tallmadge were of such a 
character as to demand a reply from Mr. Weight, which 
he thus made : 

" Mr. Weight said he should not have felt called upon to par- 
ticipate in this debate at all, had not the remarks of his colleague, 
in relation to the passage of the independent treasury bill, in this 
body, been made personal in their application to himself ; but as 
they had been so made, it was necessary that he should make a 
more minute statement of the facts, and of his own course, in 
relation to the action of the Senate upon that measure, than he 
had done upon a former occasion, when called out from the same 
quarter. 

" Preliminarily, however, he was bound to confess, though he 
did not pretend to be very well schooled in questions of courtesy, 
it did appear to his mind as somewhat singular that he should be 
arraigned for want of courtesy as a Senator, by one who was not, 
at the time the transaction complained of occurred, either present 
or a member of the body. The Senate, as then constituted, was 
the tribunal to which he was properly^ as he was willingly 
responsible for the propriety or impropriety of his conduct upon 
that and all other occasions, when he acted here. Those who 
were then Senators, and were present, saw and heard, and could 
judge. Upon their judgments he was willing to rest the matter. 
To them, and to them only, was he amenable for his course ; and 
he would now tell his colleague, as he had told him upon a former 
occasion, that he would not discuss, on this floor, with him or any 
other man, the propriety of his acts, within these walls, touching 
any matter transacted here when the complainant was not a 
member of the Senate. This, he hoped, would end this matter 
between him and his colleague here. If the gentleman chose to 
discuss this, or any other topic, touching his course and conduct 
elsewhere, he was at liberty to do so. The choice of the time, 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. HTf) 

place and manner were open to him. Elsewhere he nii<;lil, Imve 
rights in the matter, and he presumed lie wouM ktuiw how to 
exercise them wisely, but here he could have none. 

" As, however, his course upon tlie occasions alluded to had 
been characterized as 'precipitate and wanting in courtesy,' it 
was due to himself, and to those who constituted the Senate at 
that time, that he should detail somewhat minutely the facts in 
relation to the action of the body upon the indei)endent treasury 
bill, during the present session, that his constituents and the 
country might know with how much projDriety this charge had 
been preferred. For this purpose he would ask the indulgence 
of the Senate for a few moments. 

"The Senate met and was organized on the second day of 

December last. Through the kindness of the honorable Senator 

who then occupied the President's chair, and the indulgence of 

the Senate, he had been honored with the same place upon the 

standing committees of the body which he had occupied for 

several previous sessions, bestowed upon him, as the then presiding 

officer could testify, without solicitation from himself. This 

necessarily placed before the committee of which he was a member 

the reference of that part of the annual message of the President 

which related to the finances of the country, and consequently 

which related to the independent treasury bill. Thus situated, if 

it had been his object to escape the influence of the powerful 

talents of his colleague in opposition to the measure, the charge 

should have been that he was dilatory, and not ' precipitate ; ' for 

it was not until the sixth day of January, more tlian a month 

after the meeting of the Senate, that the bill was reported from 

the committee. On the following day, the seventh of January 

the Legislature of his State was to assemble, and he could not 

fail to know that among their first acts would be the election of 

a Senator. 

" By the direction of the committee, it became his duty to report 
tbe bill ; and, by the same direction, he gave notice that its con- 
sideration would be moved on that day week. The day arrived, 
the thirteenth of January, and passed, and on the fourteenth the 
bill was called up. Some discussion was had in reference to a 
postponement for two weeks, to give time for absent Senators to 



876 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

arrive and for vacancies to be filled, and reference was made to 
the vacancy existing fi*om his own State. He informed the Senate 
that his action, thus far, had been under the order of the com- 
mittee ; that, having discharged their order, he now cheerfully 
submitted the whole matter to the disposition of the Senate ; 
that it would give him pleasure to have a colleague here before 
the bill should be finally acted upon, and that he should now be 
in the daily expectation of the news of an election and of the 
arrival of the person appointed to take his seat in the body; that 
he did not consider it proper for him to urge any course upon 
the Senate ; nor should he, any farther than to give his individual 
vote upon the question of postponement. This course on his 
part called forth, at the time, expressions of approbation from a 
distinguished Senator of the opposition [Mr. Clay, of Kentucky], 
not now in his seat. The bill was under the consideration of 
the Senate daily, from the fourteenth to the seventeenth of Janu- 
ary, when the question upon its engrossment was taken. This 
was Friday of the week, and after the question was declared, 
he, in violation of the wishes and feelings of a large portion of 
his friends, moved that when the Senate adjourn, it adjourn to 
meet on Monday, instead of Saturday, thus deferring the ques- 
tion upon the final passage of the bill to the following week. 
The motion prevailed. He entertained not a single doubt then 
that he should have a colleague present by the Monday to which 
the Senate stood adjourned. 

"The Monday came, but not his colleague. The bill was again 
taken up, and the discussion upon its final passage was continued 
from day to day, until Thursday, the twenty-third of January, 
when the question was taken and the bill passed. On that day 
an effort was made to adjourn the Senate, to j^ive further time 
for the Senator from Maryland [Mr. Merrick] to discuss the bill ; 
and when the question was taken upon the motion to adjourn, he 
purposely left his seat, and did not vote. 

" Now, as to his conduct toward his colleague who had chosen 
to make himself the author of these charges of ' precipitancy ' 
and ' want of courtesy.' On the evening of Saturday, the twenty- 
fifth of January, two days after the bill in question had finally 
passed the Senate, tlie mail from the north brought him a letter, 



Life Ai\d Tjmes of A'/ /..in Wukiiit. s 



/ / 



dated at the Astor House, in the city of New York, ..n tlic iwfii- 
ty-third, the day on wliich the final question upun tin- liill wuh 
taken here, signed by his colleague, giving (lie iiil'uiiii:iii.>ii tlml 
he was detained in New York by ill-health (lii.ii ImIii-- \\^^■ lirsi 
information of that character which had iciclicd ,Mr. W.), and 
requesting that the final question upon this l)ill uiigiil be |io^t- 
poned to await his arrival, which would be on the jNlouilav aller. 
But a few moments had elapsed, after the letter reached his 
hands, when he was informed that the same train of cars wluch 
brought the letter brought also his colleague to tlic city. 

"Upon this state of facts, well known to the Senator by a 
former explanation here, he rises in his place and again makes 
the charge of ' preciiDitancy and want of courtesy.' To such a 
charge, under such circumstances, and coming from such a (quar- 
ter, he had no reply to make. 

" His statement of facts had been made to justify himself to 
his constituents and the country ; it had been made to those who 
were Senators when the transactions took place, and could judge 
of the accuracy of his account of the matter. To his colleague 
he owed neither explanation nor reply to this repetition of such 
a charge. 

" It would be seen that some time had been allowed, after the 
meeting of the New York Legislature, and before the final action 
of the Senate upon the bill in question, for the filling of that 
vacancy, and the arrival of the elected Senator to take his place 

in the body. 

"He would leave to his colleague the duty of informing the 
Senate and the country at what time his election had taken 
place; at what time the notice of the fact had reached Iiini ; what 
time was occupied by him in traveling from the place of his 
residence to the city of New York ; wliat number of days ill- 
health had confined him there, and all the other facts which 
would account to their common constituents for Ins late arrival to 
take his seat in the Senate. He had not taken the pains to make 
inquiries into these facts, nor were they such as it became him to 
enlighten the Senate about. He did not doubt the alnlity of his 
colirague to give the information which seemed to be called for 
before'' he should become an accuser of others; but it was at his 



878 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

option to give the information or to withhold it. To him, Mr. 
W., neither course had any importance, nor had he any desire 
upon the subject. The facts were within the reach of those to 
whom they owed a common responsibility, and they would 
make up no judgment upon either side without giving them 
their true weight and consideration. 

" He had no disposition to follow his colleague into the discus- 
sion of the independent treasury bill upon this occasion. The 
subject was not new to either, and the views of both were fully 
known to their common constituents. He has further thought 
it proper to discuss again most of the subjects upon which we 
have differed since we became members together of this body. 
He, Mr. W., would not follow him in this review. He had been 
and continued to be content with their first discussions, and 
would rest himself iipon them. 

"His colleague had said, with some apparent feeling and 
triumph, that he, Mr. W., had upon those occasions proposed 
to refer their differences to their constituents, and not make 
them the subjects of debate and irritation here. He had done 
so, and he certainly had not regretted the reference. It was one 
which his duty not less than his feelings prompted him to make, 
and it was made to tliose who would take cognizance of them 
without their consent. 

" The Senator said their constituents had decided, thrice deci- 
ded. Be it so. He had not questioned the assertion nor was he 
to do so upon this occasion. He had not claimed to stand with 
the majority in his State, nor had he manifested any disposition 
nor did he entertain any wish to dispute the standing of his col- 
league in that particular. He felt no ambition to change places 
or positions. He said now, as he had said before, leave our pub- 
lic acts to the determination of those common constituents and 
not undertake to settle them here. 

"His colleague seemed to manifest peculiar anxiety to learn 
whether he would obey instructions from the Legislature of the 
State; a doctrine, he said, which originated in the school to 
which he, Mr. W., belonged. He was free to avow the doc- 
trine of instructions as belonging to his school, but the present 
remarks of his colleague were the first intimation he had received 



Life and Times of Silas Wrkhit. 870 

that he too did not belong to that same school, ii|m.ii this point 
at least. He was sorry to be compelled to infer that hcic again 
a difference was to grow up between them, as it socnicd to 
threaten an entire separation in principle as well as pi-acticc 

"He was aware that this answer had not exactly reached the 
object of his colleague, and that he desired him to speak particu- 
larly of the resolutions of their Legislature now before the Senate. 
This it was not his purpose to do at present, and the only relief 
he could give him now was to inform him that when legislative 
instructions should call for it he should be ready to act promptly 
and decisively." 



880 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 



Chapter LXXIX. 

ASSUMING THE DEBTS OF THE SEVERAL STATES BY THE 

UNITED STATES. 

It has been a favorite object with a class of politicians 
to induce the federal government to assume the debts of 
the respective States, or provide the means of their liqui- 
dation. State debts contracted during the Revolutionary 
war were assumed, at the instance of Mr. Hamilton, by 
Congress, upon which Mr. Jefferson made severe stric- 
tures. Those contracted in defense of the country have 
been uniformly paid, though with more or less delay. 
But ordinary debts of the States, contracted exclusively 
for State purposes, have never been paid by the general 
government. The money distributed — under the false 
pretense of making the States federal agents, under the 
name of "depositories" — to the several States was used 
by them as their own. Some of this may have been used 
by some States to pay their debts. Propositions to 
assume State debts were often made, but mainly by 
individuals seeking personal advancement. All such 
efforts, whether in the shape of du'ect assumption, or 
in the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the 
public lands, or the distribution of money from the trea- 
sury, rest upon the same basis, the belittling of the State 
governments and making the general government the tax 
collector for them, thereby causing them to be dependent 
upon an all-powerful, and to them an irresponsible, 
authority. The assumption of State debts had ardent 
friends in Congress, some of whom had their fears excited 
that New York was pretending that her debts were 
larger than they really were, to secure an undue share of 



Life and Times of Sjlas Wright. 881 

what might be distributed. Mr. Fhigg, then Comptrol- 
ler of New York, had ascertained that the aggregate of 
State debts was near $200,000,000. Foreign creditors of 
these States, and especially in England, had intermed- 
dled in the matter and sent out a bankers' circular on 
the subject, in which attention was specially called to 
several States, and among them Mississippi and Arkan- 
sas, which had susi3ended payment, leaving the interest 
on their debts unprovided for. 

When these subjects were before the Senate for discus- 
sion, in January, 1840, Mr. Wright presented his views 
upon them as follows : 

"Mr. Weight said lie found himself compelled, from the course 
of remark of the honorable Senator from New Jersey [Mr, South- 
ard], to make an explanation of an explanation. That Senator 
was proceeding to blame the committee, and charge them with 
error in their statement of the amount of the debt of the State 
of New York. Feeling that, if error or blame were chargeable 
anywhere for that statement, the charge should be against him 
and not the committee, he asked leave of the Senator to explain, 
which was courteously granted. He had intended in that expla- 
nation to state the truth. He had said that he was called on by 
the honorable chairman of the committee, before the report was 
hrst made, to examine it upon this point; that he had told the 
chairman he thought their statement of $18,000,000 as the 
amount of the debt of New York excessive, but that he believed 
he had the means of accurate ascertainment; that he referred to 
the annual report of the Comptroller, the fiscal officer of the 
State, made to the Legislature during its present session, took 
the amount of the debt as he understood it to be from that docu- 
ment, and, according to his recollection, himself erased the sum 
stated in the report of $18,000,000, and interlined in his own 
handwriting the words 'about fifteen and a half millions;' and 
that this was done before the report was first made to the Senate. 

" This explanation he had made to exempt the committee from 

the charge of having stated that debt at 118,000,000, when their 

report was read in the Senate, and of having altered the sum 
66 



882 Ltfe and TuiEs of Silas Wright. 

after the recommitment on yesterday, as well as to exempt them 
from the charge of error at all, in the statement as it now 
appeared. In the alteration of the sum stated in the report, as 
well as in his explanation of it, he had intended to give the truth; 
and yet the subsequent remarks of the Senator had been made to 
show that he was in eri-or. [Here Mr, Southard rose and inquired 
if Mr. Weight supposed he intended to charge him with inten- 
tional error.] Mr. W. said, certainly not; certainly not. He 
begged the Senator to be assured that he had made, and intended 
to make, no ill-natured remarks. His object was what he had 
declared it to be, in reference to his alteration of the report and 
his former explanation of that act, to arrive at the truth, and to 
give that to the Senate and the country upon this point at least. 

" Could he have obtained the floor when he first made the 
attempt, and so as immediately to have succeeded the honorable 
Senator, he should have confined himself to a more full explana- 
tion in relation to what he supposed to be the true amount of the 
debt of the State of New York and the authority upon which he 
had assumed it to be what he had stated. He might now extend 
his remarks to a few other topics, but a severe cold made it labori- 
ous for him to speak, and, as well as the late hour of the day, 
would prevent him from being very tedious. And he would first 
complete his explanation in relation to the debt of the State he 
had the honor in part to represent here- 

" The honorable Senator [Mr. Southard] had produced and read 
from a document emanating from the State, to show that the 
amount of the debt was much less than the sum stated in the 
report of the committee, and, by necessary consequence, that he, 
Mr. W., had misled the coimnittee upon that point. He did not 
complain that the gentleman had produced the document or of 
the use he had made of it. It was a document proper to refer 
to for the purpose for which the Senator liad made the reference. 
It was the message of the Governor of his State, a document 
which ought to carry authority with it, and especially to his hon- 
orable coUeaofue and himself. It Avas the document to which he 
first referred, after the inquiry in reference to the arcionnt of their 
State debt was made of him by the honorable chairman of the 
committee. He remembered that their Governor had given a 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 883 

statement of the debt in his message, and there he first souglit 
for the true amount. An examination of the document, however, 
was unsatisfactory to him. It spoke of certain deductions, with- 
out giving the amount of tlie items, and some of them were 
clearly parts of the existing debt of the State. An acquaint- 
ance, somewhat extensive, with these matters, in years past, satis- 
fied him that the true amount of the State debt was not to be 
learned from the message of the Governor, and, having recently 
received copies of the annual report of the Comptroller of the 
State, the officer who keeps the books and accounts of the State, 
and whose duty it is, in this report, to show its true fiscal condi- 
tion, he had recourse to that document for the information sought 
by the committee from him. 

" The report was made to the Legislature of the State on the 
thirteenth day of the present month, and appended to it, as 
exhibits connected with the fiscal condition of the State, he found 
two tables, marked H and I. The tables he now held in his hand, 
and the entire document from which they had been taken was 
laying upon the desk before him. The first mentioned table, H, 
had tliis caption : 

' ' ' Statement showing the amount of Canal and General Fund stocks out- 
standing on the 1st January, 1840, the rate of interest, and when redeemable.' 

" Then followed the various amounts of stock, arranged under 
various heads of expenditure, and there was carried out in the 
last column a general aggregate, the footing of which was 
$13,697,931.03. The table I, printed upon the same sheet, had 
the following cajDlion : 

" ' Statement of stocks issued to incorporated companies on the faith of 
the State, and the amount authorized to be issued.' 

" The table contains the names of the companies which have 
received portions of these stocks, a reference to the acts of the 
Legislature authorizing the emission, the amoimt of stock already 
issued to each company, and the further amount autliorized, but 
not issued, with the aggregate of both. The table is, therefore, 
clear and intelligible, not confounding stock authorized to be 
issued with that actually issued, and constituting an existing 
debt, and from it the amount actually issued is shown to be 



884 Life and 2'uies of Silas Wright. 

$1,847,700, while that authorized and uot yet issued is $2,762,300 
more. 

"To answer the committee, then, Mr. W. said he took the first 
two sums above named, as the existing debt of the State, and, 
adding them together, he found their amount to be $15,545,631,03, 
and, from data of that authority, he had inserted in the report 
of the committee the words ' about fifteen and a half millions ' 
as the amount of the actual and existing debt of his State, instead 
of the eighteen millions previously written by the committee. 
Had he given the committee the true sum ? Or had he led them 
into error ? Had he done injustice to the State he ought truly 
to represent, and brought merited censure upon a committee of 
this body, by the same act, or had he told the truth without 
regard to consequences ? 

" These were the inquiries which suggested themselves to his 
mind, and the inquiries he wished, so far as it was in his power, 
to enable the Senate to answer. The honorable Senator had 
shown to us the message of the Governor of the State, giving 
the amount of its debt, as stated by the Senator, at a sum not far 
different from $9,000,000. He, Mr. W., had given the amount 
of that debt to the committee, and now gave it to the Senate, at 
$15,500,000, or about that sum, and had rested himself upon the 
ofiicial report of the fiscal ofiicer of the State, and the political, 
and, he supposed, personal friend of the Governor. The differ- 
ence of amount was most material, considering the sums given 
by either party. A mistake or error of $6,000,000 in $15,000,000, 
is no inconsiderable variance from the truth, whoever may have 
made it. 

" Of the authority which ought to be ascribed to the respective 
documents which had been adduced, it did not become him to 
speak further than he had done. For their accuracy he certainly 
could not indorse, further than to give the official responsibility 
of the authors. Still he would venture to believe that no one, 
here or elsewhere, would be found attempting to impeach the 
accuracy of the tables appended to the report of the Comptroller, 
to which he had referred. Did their statements and results 
necessarily conflict with and contradict the statement of the 
Governor, as to the amount of the State debt ? To the casual 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 885 

reader the difference was, unquestionably, wide and important. 
Here he thought that might not be found to be true; and indeed 
he was not prepared to say that, here, the errors and discrepan- 
cies might not be charged to him, instead of the author of either 
document. 

" Had he not listened to the debates in this body, on yesterday 
and this day, he could not have believed that, with all the facts 
before us, we could have differed about the amount of the debt 
of a given State. Yet those debates had shown him that this 
difference of opinion did exist among the members of the Senate, 
and that the point in controversy had a direct bearing upon the 
question, what was, in fact and in truth, the debt of his own 
State ? 

" He referred to the position taken yesterday by several Sena- 
tors, that the stocks or other liabilities of the several States — - 
call them by what name you please — incurred for the benefit 
of incorporated companies and associations or individuals, are 
not, properly speaking, debts of the States; and that in speaking 
of the indebtedness of the several States these liabilities should 
not be considered. He would not now consider this doctrine any 
further than it had particular application to the debt of his own 
State; though he hoped, before this debate should close, to have 
an opportunity to give his views upon it at length, and to expose 
what seemed to him to be its dangerous character and tendency, 
as it I'espects the credit of the States, the fiscal affairs of the 
States and the people of the States. 

"What, then, was its application to the point in dispute, the 
amount of the debt of the State of New York ? He had given 
to the committee the sum of $15,500,000 as about the amount of 
the true debt of his State, and he had now shown that the fiscal 
officer of the State had given it on the first day of the present 
month at $15,545,631.03. In this amount, however, was included 
$1, 847, 700 of debt incurred for canal, navigation and railroad 
companies; and should this sum have been so included? Was 
it in truth a part of the State debt ? The Governor of the State 
had not so considered it and had excluded it from his statement, 
which accounted for so much of the difference between himself 
and his Comptroller. He, Mr. W., considered it a part of the 



886 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

debt of the State, and therefore included it in the sum given to 
the committee as the aggregate of that debt. Who was in error? 
What are the facts? The {ublic stocks of the State have been 
issued for these amounts in the same manner as for any other 
debts of the State; these stocks have been sold in the market as 
the stocks of the State, not as the stocks of the companies or 
associations to which they were issued; they are at this moment 
in the markets of the world as the stocks of the State, without 
reference at all to the companies or associations; they bear the 
same price in those markets as any other stocks of the State 
having the same time to run and drawing the same interest; and 
the holders and purchasers rely as confidently and as exclusively 
upon the State for the payment of both interest and principal 
upon them as do the holders and purchasers of any other of the 
stocks of the same State. Indeed, Mr. W. said, lie could not say 
whether there was anything in the form or upon the face of these 
certificates of stock which would distinguisli them to a stranger 
from the certificates of stock issued for the exclusive benefit of 
the State itself. 

"It was true that the companies and associations had made 
certain pledges to the State for the payment of the interest upon 
these stocks and the final redemption of the principal ; and the 
theory of the transactions unquestionably was that these pledges 
were sufticient to indemnify the State against its liability. It 
was true, too, he believed, with a single exception, and that tri- 
flino- in amount, that the comj^anies and associations had as yet 
met the payments of interest. There was one case, however, 
where the payments, even of interest, had ceased almost with 
the issuing of the stock, and the State had been compelled to 
make those payments since without any other hope than to be 
forced to redeem the principle without any indemnity. He 
hoped this was not a sample case for these liabilities, but a soli- 
tary exception. Yet was he, was the honorable committee 
whose report was under discussion, at liberty to disregard these 
stocks when giving to the Union and the world the amount of the 
debt of the State of New York? Were they permitted to \n-o- 
claim to the holders of these stocks, and to future purchasers, that 
the State does not owe them, — that they constitute no part of 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 887 

its debt? Aiul wore they to do this to sustain the credit of the 
State in the markets of the workl? He coidd not draw such 
conchisions from such premises. 

"There were other grounds upon whicli the Governor and 
Coraptmller of his State diifcred, in their respective statements 
of the amount of its public debt. The Comptroller has given 
the exact amount of the solemn obligations of the State out- 
standing and unpaid. The Governor has given the amount 
which the State would owe in case all these pledges of the canal, 
navigation and railroad companies were actually redeemed, and 
certain money of the State said to be on hand were actually 
applied to the j^ayment of its debts. 

" The state of facts in relation to one portion of the money 
spoken of in the message of the Governor is tliis : The Erie and 
Champlain Canal Fund, protected and pledged in the Constitution 
of the State for the payment of the debt contracted for the con- 
struction of those canals, has afforded revenue more than sufficient 
to meet the respective portions of the debts as they become pay- 
able. The inconvenience and risk of accumulations of money, 
constitutionally pledged to a particular application, have induced 
the State officers having charge of this money, for several years 
past, to offer strong pecuniary inducement to the holders of these 
stocks to bring them in for payment before their maturity. These 
efforts for the final extinguishment of that debt liave failed, as to 
a large amount of the stocks, they being principally five and six 
per cent stocks held in Europe, and not redeemable until the year 
1845. The amount thus outstanding is given, in the report of the 
Comptroller referred to, at $2,167,558.94. For the payment of 
this portion of its debt, the State had done what he hoped it 
would always be able and disposed to do — had accumulated and 
was keeping the money to meet the debt when it should become 
due, or when it should be presented for payment. Yet, were 
these stocks in the hands of bona fide holders less a debt of the 
State, because the money to pay them was provided ? And could 
the debt of the State be truly given by this committee of the 
Senate, without including this portion of it? If the federal 
government were, upon this day, to assume the debts of the 
various States of this Union, should we be at liberty to say to 



888 Life and Ti3ies of Silas Wright. 

the State of New York, we will not pay this part of your debt, 
because you had money enough in your treasury to pay it when 
we agreed to pay your debts ? These stocks are iu the markets 
of the world, and can the State, iu justice to itself, to its credit, 
or to the holders of this portion of its responsible paper, say it is 
no longer our debt, because we have once prepared the money to 
meet it before it was legally payable and before you could 
legally demand it ? He had not been able to satisfy himself of 
the truth of any of these positions, and therefore he had included 
this amount as part of the debt of the State in the sum furnished 
by him to the committee. 

"A single other ground of difference between the amount of 
the State debt as given by the Governor and the Comptroller 
would be noticed, though he did not hold himself particularly 
responsible to reconcile their statements. His excellency states 
that nearly $1,000,000 of the money borrowed to be expended 
upon two of the works named has not been expended, but is yet 
on hand, and this money he deducts from the debt of the State. 
The stocks by which this money has been obtained have been 
issued, and are now in the hands of bona fide purchasers, or are 
offered in the public markets as safe transferable securities for 
money. And are they no jjart of the debt of the State? Could 
the amount of that debt be truly given, excluding these stocks ? 
To him it seemed not, and therefore this amount also was included 
in the sum given to the committee as the true amount of the State 
debt. Would the honorable Senator [Mr. Southard] differ from 
him in his conclusions upon these points ? He would give him a 
familiar case to illustrate his views. Had he borrowed, or should 
he borrow, of the gentleman $100, and execute to him his prom- 
issory note for the amount, payable at a future day, with interest, 
would that note cease to be a debt in favor of the Senator, and 
against himself, because he should keep the same or some other 
$100 of money in his pocket ? He was very well aware that the 
$100 in hand, if he chose to apply it, would prove his ability to 
pay the debt, but it would be none the less a debt against him, 
until the application was made, payment perfected and the evi- 
dence of indebtedness destroyed or canceled. He was as well 
aware that it had been ingeniously attempted upon the other 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 889 

side to show that the mention of these State debts by the com- 
mittee, and by the friends of the report in argument, was an 
insinuation of the inability or want of intention on the part 
of the States to pay, and in that way to introduce the doctrine 
for which they seemed to contend, that the disposition to pay the 
debts, and the ability to pay them, was equivalent to actual pay- 
ment, and should abrogate the debts themselves in the statements 
of the report. Who had attempted to impugn the faith or ques- 
tion the means of any one of the States to meet the debts it had 
contracted ? No such idea or suggestion had met his ear as he 
listened to the reading of the report, and he challenged gentle- 
men to point out any such sentiment upon its face. Who had 
pretended to question, here, the willingness or ability of the 
State of New York to pay its debt, whether it should be called 
19,000,000 or 115,000,000? Certainly no one had, unless that 
inference was to be drawn from the attempt to show that the 
State does not in fact acknowledge as a debt those transferable 
stocks which have been issued in pursuance of its laws, and sold 
in the market upon the strength of its faith and credit. [Mr. 
Clay, of Alabama, here inquired if Mr. Weight would not give 
way to a motion that the Senate proceed to the consideration of 
executive business.] Mr. W. said he was spending more time in 
this explanation than he had intended, and he would leave it. 
He desired, however, to make a very few remarks further this 
evening; was sorry to find he was exhausting the patience of 
the Senate, and he would hasten to a conclusion. 

" What v^^as the subject presented to the Senate for its action 
by the report of the committee under consideration? Was it 
the amount of the State debts, or their security in the hands 
of the holders of the stocks and bonds? Was it the sound- 
ness of the positions or the clearness and correctness of the 
reasoning of the report itself? It was none of these things. 
The resolutions presented by the committee were the only sub- 
jects upon which the Senate was requested to act, or could act. 
The report was nothing more than the argument of the commit- 
tee to sustain their conclusions, which were given in the resolu- 
tions. What were they ? Simple, concise and intelligible decla- 
rations that it would be unjust, inexpedient and unconstitutional 



890 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

for Congress to pass a law assuming the debts of the States, and 
charging their j^ayment upon this government. The amount 
and the existence of the debts of the States are mentioned in the 
report for no other purpose than that of argument and iUustra- 
tion to establisli the conclusions to wliich the committee have 
come. Still, the i-eport and not the resolutions had been made 
the subject of the debate for two days. References to it as the 
argument of the committee to support their conclusions were 
manifestly proper, and refutations of their positions and reason- 
ing was a fair mode of combating the conclusions based upon it. 
Had the debate hitherto seemed to have had that object ? Did 
there appear to be any difference of opinion among tlie members 
of the Senate in relation to an assumption by this government of 
the debts of the States ? 

"The committee, it was true, had been called upon to say by 
what authority they acted at all in this matter? How it was 
that they had assumed to present to the Senate a long argumen- 
tative rejiort and various resolutions, against a proposition which 
no man had made or contemplated? They had answered that 
they acted by special order of the Senate; that they were consti- 
tuted a select committee of the body solely to consider and report 
upon this subject ; that it had been referred to them in the form 
of resolutions submitted by a Senator not a member of the com- 
mittee ; that they were in no way responsible for bringing the 
matter before the Senate, and had acted upon it under the express 
order of the Senate, according to their best judgments, and in 
the conscientious discharge of what they believed to be their 
public duty. These answers of the committee had not appeared 
to be satisfactory, and the complaints against them for having 
acted at all upon the subject were continued, while all seemed to 
express astonishment at the very idea of an assumption of the 
State debts by this government. This he understood to be the 
spirit and tendency of the remarks of the honorable Senators 
from Kentucky [Mr. Crittenden] and Massachusetts [Mr. Web- 
ster], yesterday, of the honorable Senator from South Carolina 
[Mr. Preston], on both days, and of the honorable Senator from 
New Jersey [Mr. Southard] to-day. [Mr. Webster here rose to 
explain. He said he did not express astonishment at the idea 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 891 

of the assumption, lint at the manner in which the subject had 
been brought before the Senate, without the application of a 
single 8tate in the Union, or even of any individual citizen.] 
Mr. W, said he asked the pardon of the Senator. He certainly 
did not intend to misrepresent him. He had listened attentively 
to his remarks addressed to the Senate on yesterday, and had 
inferred from them that he was distinctly opposed to the assump- 
tion, and astonished that the matter should be treated as one in 
the serious contemplation of anybody. If he and his friends 
were in favor of the assumption, he had wholly misapprehended 
them, and was glad to be corrected, as he would not designedly 
misrepresent their opinions upon this or any subject. [Mr. Web- 
ster rose again in explanation. He said he had not declared him- 
self in favor of the assumption; and he called upon the Senator to 
refer to anything he had said which constituted such a declara- 
tion.] Mr. W. said he was again at fault, but certainly uninten- 
tionally. He had quoted the honorable gentleman as against the 
assumption, and was corrected. He had now spoken of him as 
for it, and was again corrected. It was evident, therefore, that 
he did not understand his position, and he woiild leave its expla- 
nation to himself. He had been felicitating himself that there 
was no division of sentiment in the body in relation to the reso- 
lutions tendered by the committee, but in that, too, he was pro- 
bably mistaken. 

"He was very properly reminded, by a Senator near him, that 
the question now depending was simply upon printing the report 
and resolutions. Upon that question he had not one word to say. 
He had followed the course of the debate hitherto, and if he had 
wandered from the proper point for remark, that had led him 
away. 

" He must follow it one step further, which should close what 
he had to say at present. This report had met a resistance, upon 
its very entrance into this chamber, which had been offered to 
very few papers of any character since he had had the honor of 
a seat here. The principal matter of the charge, too, had sur- 
prised him quite as much as the time and manner of it. What 
was the great and grave objection which had been rolled with so 
much force and energy from this to the other side of the hall ? 



892 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

It was that the report was an attack upon the sovereign States 
of this Union; a violent infringement of State rights; a servile 
war upon them. A proper regard for the rights of the States, 
as members of tlie confederacy, was said to be one of the pro- 
fessed doctrines of the party to which he belonged, and yet a 
flagrant violation of every principle of it was supposed to be 
proclaimed in this report. For himself, he could say, as did the 
honorable Senator who sits before him [Mr. Crittenden], he had 
never made much pretension upon this point, but he believed he 
regarded the principle and the duty of preserving the State 
sovereignties in our system as deeply as most public men. Yet 
he was bound to say the danger to them from the paper presented 
by this committee, and now upon the table of the Secretary, was 
not so perceptible to him as it seemed to be to those who had 
not even j^rofessed to belong to the State-rights school. 

" What was the violation of right complained of, and whence 
the danger apprehended ? Giving the amount of the debt of a 
State was the violation of its sovereign right, and talking about 
that debt was to be the destruction of its public credit ? Talking 
about it how ? Suggesting the inability of the State to pay ? 
No; for no such suggestion is contained in the report, or has 
been made in debate. Impeaching its faith and intention to pay? 
No; for no such impeachment is put forth, or even insinuated, in 
or out of the report. Talking, then, of the debts as existing, of 
their amounts, of the revenue arising to the States from the 
objects of expenditure for which the debts have been contracted, 
and of the impolicy of separating the one from the other, and of 
leaving the revenues to the States, while the debts, interest and 
principal are thrown upon this government for payment? This 
is the manner in which the report speaks of the State debts, and 
here, if anywhere, must be found the suj^port for the grave 
charges which are made against it. 

" Mr. W. said he would take his own State for an example. The 
report assumed to state the amount of its debt. It was appre- 
hended that the statement was excessive, and yet the report 
declares that the revenues annually accruing from the objects of 
expenditure are more than sufficient to meet the interest upon 
the amount of debt given. Is the statement of these facts, in a 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 893 

report to the Senate by one of its committees, an infringement of 
tbe sovereign rights of that State ? Are the facts stated calcu- 
lated to destroy its credit at home and abroad, and thus to bring 
unmerited injury upon it ? In short, Mr. President, said Mr. W., 
is the credit of any one of the free and proud States of this Union 
so frail and feeble, and sustained upon so unreal a basis, that the 
simple truth, told in relation to its pecuniary liabilies, will destroy 
it ? Will any man in these seats claim the fact to be so as to the 
State he represents here ? Will any one assert or believe it as to 
the State from which I come, and of the financial affairs of which 
I suppose I am permitted, at all times, here and elsewhere, respect- 
fully and truly to speak ? Sir, she has hitherto paid her debt 
faster than it has fallen due, and so long as wisdom shall guide 
her counsels she will continue to do so. She has the means to 
preserve her faith and her credit, without depending upon the 
iirnorance of the world as to her liabilities ; and if the time shall 
come when she shall be willing to pledge the former, or to send 
forth the latter for a market, relying upon such a dependence, 
that will be the time when the truth should be known, regardless 
of the consequences to her. 

"Take her debt, sir, and who believes it unjust to her to urge 
the inexpediency of separating it from her rich revenues, and 
throwing it upon this government for payment ? To her it is 
lio-ht, because, in the course of its contraction, she has laid the 
foundation for permanent revenues more than sufficient to meet 
the accruing interest. Transfer it here, without those revenues, 
and it becomes a dead-weight. So with the debts of all the other 
States. They, too, must be separated from the revenues, which 
have been made consequent upon them, if they are assumed by 
this government ; and in such a general arrangement, the exist- 
ino- burdens of New York could not be lessened, while they 
might be fearfully increased. Her proportion of any debt of this 
government would rest as directly and as heavily upon her people 
as an equal amount of her own debt, while the interest would be 
met, and the principal redeemed, not by her revenues, set apart 
for the purpose, but by the heavy operation of the taxing power 
here. 

" Think you, sir, she will call upon you, under such circum- 



894 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

stances, and with such prospects, to assume her debt ? I confi- 
dently hope and believe not. She has been to you once. I believe 
she was the first to ask your aid for objects of internal expendi- 
ture. You refused her rightly theu, and I pray she may be the 
last to invite another refusal. 

" Let the States manage their own affairs in their own way, in 
reference to their local expenditures and the debts to be con- 
tracted for them. They will have the revenues to be derived, and 
let them meet the payments to be made; not separate the one 
from the other, and tie the debts, with the weight of a millstone, 
about the neck of this government." 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 895 



Chapter LXXX. 

REPEAL OF THE SALT DUTIES. 

On tlie 5tli of December, 1839, Col. Beuton introduced 
a bill to repeal the act "laying a duty on imported salt, 
granting a bounty on pickled fish exported, and allow- 
ances to certain vessels employed in the fisheries," 
approved Jnly 29, 1813, and all acts amending the same. 
The act sought to be repealed was passed, and had been 
continued, under the assumption that the fisheries were 
the nurseries to furnish sailors, and that the supply 
could not be kept up without this legislative favoritism. 
The law was distasteful to southern and western people. 
The subject was thoroughly discussed and with some 
evidences of warm feeling. The effect of past legislation 
u^on the interest of the owners of salt springs was con- 
sidered and discussed. ]^ew York being the owner of 
valuable salt springs at Salina, which yielded her a 
respectable revenue, it was natural that her representa- 
tives in Congress should feel a deep interest and partici- 
pate in the debate. Salt being an article of universal 
use, the people at large were interested in securing it at 
the lowest possible price. This made the measure pro- 
posed by Col. Benton very acceptable to the people. 
Mr. Wright's views on the question were those of a 
statesman, as the subjoined remarks will show : 

" ]VIr, Weight said he rose to ask what was the question before 
the Senate ? The debate had taken so wide a range that the real 
question was likely to be lost sight of. What was it ? Simply 
to print the papers referred to in the motion of the Senator from 
Missouri. Those papers had been presented by that honorable 
Senator to the Senate; had been, on his motion, referred to the 



896 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

Committee on Finance, and were now reported back by that 
member of the committee with instructions to ask for their print- 
ing. The motion to print was now before the body and was the 
only question presented for its action. Would any one who had 
listened to this debate, without a knowledge of these facts, have 
supposed this to be the question under discussion ? Would they 
not rather have supposed that the bill for the repeal of the duty 
on salt, or some measure having for its object the punishment of 
monopolies and frauds in the dealers in salt, was now before the 
Senate and about to receive its action ? It seemed to him that 
no other conclusion could have been formed by the impartial lis- 
tener to the discussion. Yet no such proposition as either of 
these had been presented by the Committee on Finance. 

" It was true a bill had been introduced by the honorable Sena- 
tor from Missouri, proposing to repeal the duty on salt, and that 
bill had been referred to the Committee on Finance; but it was 
also true that the committee had not yet even taken up that mea- 
sure for consideration, much less inade any report upon it. It 
remained in the hands and possession of the committee, wholly 
unacted upon, and was not in the possession or within the reach 
of the Senate for its action. Still, the debate would have com- 
pelled a hearer to suppose that the committee had reported back 
that bill, had recommended its passage and were now urging the 
Senate to final action upon it. Not only so, but the further 
impression would be produced that the Committee on Finance 
of the Senate had originated and presented to the Senate penal 
enactments against those who had attempted to govern the price 
of salt in various parts of the country by associated monopolies. 

"It was his duty, standing as he did in relation to that com- 
mittee, to correct impressions so erroneous and so certain to fol- 
low wherever a report of this debate should go. The committee, 
as he had already said, had not even considered the bill to repeal 
the duty upon salt. They had not, so far as he knew, formed 
any opinion in regard to that measure. Certainly they had not, 
as a committee, expressed any opinion upon it; much less had 
they attempted to assert the right in Congress to punish monopo- 
lies and mischievous associations in the States of the Union, of 
any character. They had simply recommended the printing of 



Life and Ti3ies of Silas Wright. 897 

certain papers referred to them by an express order of the 
Senate, touching the subject of the salt bill and the fishing 
bounties, though he did not himself consider a j^ortion of the 
papers as relating very directly to any of the provisions of the 
bill before the committee. Yet that portion of the papers was, 
as he thought and as the committee thought, well worthy of 
publication. They disclosed facts deeply interesting to every 
inhabitant of the whole country, to every interest connected with 
the essential article of salt. 

"He was not very familiar with the contents of the papers. 
They were voluminous, and the committee had not thought it 
necessary to detain them for minute examination in their manu- 
script form, after they had seen enough of their contents to ren- 
der the printing, in their judgments, proper. He could not, 
therefore, speak particularly of the information proposed to be 
furnished to the Senate and the country by the printing. He 
would make one or two general references to parts of it, and to 
those parts less relating to the salt bill; and he would make the 
practices at the Kanawha salt works the basis of his statements, 
because he thought he recollected more particularly the history 
given in the jjapers of the fraudulent and mischievous practices 
there. He Avould be corrected by the honorable Senator from 
Missouri, who Avas perfectly familiar with the whole testimony, 
if he should err in his facts. 

" One of the practices to which he alluded was that of form- 
ing an association to monopolize the whole of those extensive 
works in the hands, and under the control, of a single com- 
pany; then to limit the supply of salt for the country depending 
upon those manufactories for the article, and thus to raise the 
price most exorbitantly to the consumers. The process was to 
possess themselves of a small number of the manufactories for 
actual use, and to pay a stipulated annual rent to all the others 
to remain idle and make no salt ; then to district the country to 
be supplied with salt; to appoint a selling agent for each district; 
to send all the salt for each district to that agent, and to him 
only ; and to give him, from time to tiiue, a limit or minimum of 
price, below which no salt should be sold in his district. To 
such an extent had this system been carried, that of some 160 
67 



898 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

manufactories at Kanawha, but forty had been worked for the 
year, the remaining 120 being hired to remain closed; while salt to 
the consumers, dependent upon these works for a supply, had been 
raised to the enormous price of three dollars, and he believed some- 
times even much higher, for the bushel of fifty pounds weiglit. 

" Another practice was also disclosed, not less reprehensible, 
and perhaps infinitely more injurious to the public. This was 
the practice of adulterating, by system and design, the small 
quantity of salt made, and thus sparingly dealt out to the com- 
munity under the arrangements for extortion before described. 
The adulteration was effected by using chemical agents to retain 
in the salt impurities held in solution in the water, and which, 
without being thus retained, would be principally, if not entirely, 
separated and excluded by the simple process of boiling. Tallow 
was said to be the principal agent thus employed, and such was 
the effect described to be, that, while the salt made would have 
a more rich and white and beautiful appearance to the unin- 
structed eye, 100 pounds of tallow was considered equivalent to 
the ordinary rent of a manufactory for a season, or about 5,000 
bushels of salt. 

" Mr. W. said he would go into no further detail as to the con- 
tents of these papers, nor would he stop to consider the pertinency 
of the facts he had stated to the salt bill in the hands of the 
committee. It was enough for his purpose that the statements 
were made, that they were laid before the Senate and the com- 
mittee as facts, that they rested upon responsible authority, and 
that they were deeply interesting to the whole country. These 
considerations were sufficient to induce him, as a member of the 
committee, to recommend the printing, and would induce him, 
as a member of the Senate, to vote for it. 

"The charges against the manufacturers of and dealers in salt 
are grave and particular. Are they founded in truth ? If so, 
the public ought to have full possession of them. Are they false ? 
They ought to be made known that they may be met and refuted. 
Why, then, should we refuse to j^i'int the papers ? Upon what 
grounds was the motion opposed ? Strange as it might seem, 
principally upon the ground that the printing would be an 
infringement of the rights of the States ! 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 899 

"An infringement of the great State-riglits principle, in our 
system, for the Senate to order the printing of these papers — • 
papers, if true, developing the most wicked system of frauds and 
impositions, in reference to one of the necessaries of human and 
animal life, which has ever been developed to an intelligent 
people? And how is this objection to the printing sustained? 
By a reference to his own State ! He is told here that she is the 
greatest monopolizer of salt in this Union, and that the printing 
of these papers will damnify her important interests in the arti- 
cle. Is this so? No, sir; no. Her interests in her extensive and 
useful salt works are not to be injured by developing the frauds 
and impositions practiced elsewhere. On the contrary, her direct 
interest is to have these papers printed, and the truth known in 
reference to the whole matter, and especially that she may thus 
show the superiority of her system of police upon this subject. 
She has not submitted the manufacture of salt, at her works, to 
speculators and monopolizers, so far as the purity of the article 
is concerned. That power she has retained in her own hands. 
Every drop of water boiled, or evaporated, is supplied by State 
agents and under the suj)ervision of State officers, and every 
bushel of salt made is carefully inspected by a competent 
State officer, and its jiurity thoroughly tested, before it is per- 
mitted to seek a market among the consumers. Without fraud 
and perjury in these officers, or smuggling on the part of the 
manufacturers, no imposition can be practiced upon the public in 
the quality of the New York salt. The same police is a perfect 
defense against the monopolies complained of in these papers. 
They could not exist without the knowledge of the officers 
referred to, and they would be faithless to their duty to suffer 
them to exist for a day without being made known to the whole 
State and to the whole country. This obligation would arise 
from their moral duties as public servants; but there is another 
obligation upon them more direct and immediate. The State 
imposes a duty per bushel upon the salt made, and to guard and 
protect and foster that revenue is the especial duty of these 
officers. Any association, therefore, to diminish the quantity of 
salt made, would be, to the same extent, a conspiracy to diminish 
the State revenue, and would, in that way, come within the 



900 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

especial jurisdiction of those officers, and call upon them for 
prompt exposition. 

" It is not new to the experience of that State that great frauds 
may be j^racticed in the adulteration of the salt made, nor is it 
that extortion in the price of the salt may be attempted by the 
manufacturers. Hence the retention by the State of its minute 
control over the whole mattei", and its constant and continued 
ejfforts to furnish a pure and wholesome quality of salt. It is 
not enough, upon this point, that frauds and intended adultera- 
tions are guarded against. Expense must be incurred, the nicest 
processes of manufacture must be adopted, and the extremest 
vigilance used to expel from the water its impurities and make 
it yield a pure salt. To these points the constant attention of the 
State inspectors has been directed, and the results, within the 
last twenty yeai's, have been triumphant. 

" Is that State, then, to be told that her interests depend upon 
secrecy in these matters — that her revenue is to be destroyed by 
the publication of these papers, and the exposition of abuses, such 
as he had pointed out, existing elsewhere ? Are her dignity and 
sovereignty to be infringed by such a publication, a proclamation 
of frauds connected with other salt works in the country, similar 
to those which her experience has taught her would exist at her 
own but for the vigilant supervision which she has been wise 
enough to retain over them ? 

" No, Mr. President, said Mr. W., New York has no such fears 
to entertain from this harmless motion. She has, however, a 
direct interest in the publication of these papers. Her salt is a 
pure article. It goes into the market without combinations to 
raise the price. Her works can supply any quantity for which a 
fair market can be found, and her revenue is graduated by the 
quantity manufactured and sold. If, then, it be shown that, in 
consequence of frauds at other salines, she can furnish a better 
and cheaper article to their customers, her interests are promoted 
by the development. What is the fact now stated by the hon- 
orable Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Clay] ? That he has, for the 
last year or two, obtained his supply of salt from the New York 
works, and that he has received a pure article at a fair price. 
Whei'e are the Kanawha works, compared with those of New 



X 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 901 

York, iu i-eference to him ? And, if the New York salt can 
descend the Ohio to the point required to supply the honorable 
Senator, what portion of the country is there, accustomed to 
depend upon the Kanawha works for a supply of salt, which can- 
not be supplied from Onondaga ? Let the facts be known, then. 
Let it be understood that a wide and open market exists for pure 
salt within the reach of the New York works, and he would be 
responsible for the injury to her interests, her feelings or her 
sovereignty, from the publication of the fact. 

" Suppose, sir, that the charges contained in these papers were 
directed against the New York salt manufactories, would it be 
my duty to rise in my place here and resist their publication ? 
No, sir. Whether true or false, that State would exact no such 
duty from her representatives here. It has never been her prac- 
tice to conceal any attempts at fraud connected with her exten- 
sive and rich salines. On the contrary, she has always sought to 
give to every imposition upon the public the most extensive pub- 
lication, and she will not require of those who represent her here 
to attempt to make secrets of that information in relation to 
others, which she invariably makes public in relation to herself. 

"Another objection to the printing of these papers is urged, 
not less singular than that which has just been considered. It is 
said that the motion savors of agrarianism; that the attempt to 
expose these monopolies and frauds here by a publication of the 
proof of their existence and extent is acting upon a principle which, 
carried out in practice, would lead to the distribution of property 
and the other leveling doctrines of the agrarians. Mr. W. said 
it would be difficult to make any distribution of property by 
which he should not be benefited in a pecuniary sense, but it was 
nevertheless a doctrine which he repudiated, and he should be 
compelled to vote against the motion if he could see that princi- 
ple in the order to print. He could not, however; and he was 
surprised to hear the opinion advanced. No legislation is pro- 
posed, and all that is asked is the simple publication of most 
important information upon a subject of universal interest. If 
the statements contained in the papers be true, he was sure no 
one would attempt to justify the practices complained of. Should 
they not, then, be made known ? 



902 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

" Suppose it were charged here, with the authenticity of this 
testimony, that a number of farmers in western New York had 
combined to raise and control the price of provisions, and that 
to accomplish their object they had hired three-fourths of the 
farmers of that fertile wheat-growing region not to cultivate 
their farms for a given season ; would it be his duty, as a rej^re- 
sentative of the State here, to resist the publication of the fact? 
No. It would be his duty, as well to his State and the people he 
represented as to himself, to give it publication, to proclaim it to 
the world, and thus do all that it is in our power to do to arrest 
the intended evil. 

" The honorable Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Preston] 
bad said that we do not represent the people here ; that we are 
the representatives of the sovei-eign States, not of the people of 
the States ; that one Senator may represent a million of popula- 
tion and another one hundred thousand, and yet we are all equal 
here. This is true ; and yet, where rests the sovereignty of the 
States but in the people ? Who are the sovereigns of the States 
but the people ? And would he have those of us who represent 
populous States forget our increased obligations, growing out of 
the increased interests committed to our charge ? Would he 
make us unmindful of the fact that we represent millions instead 
of thousands, and of the interests, the wishes and the safety of 
those millions ? [Here several Senators, among whom the voices 
of Mr. Webster and Mr. Clay were heard, said ' Yes, that is the 
rule ; we ought to represent the people of our respective States.'] 
Mr. W. said he thanked the gentlemen for reminding him of the 
tendency of his remark. It would save him a future explanation. 
He had said upon that point precisely what he intended. He 
held it to be his duty truly to represent the wishes and interests 
of the people of the State which had honored him with a seat 
here, and he should continue to govern his acts and votes by 
what he believed to be those interests and wishes, unless arrested 
in his course by the command of another and a controlling voice. 
He hoped this explanation would satisfy the gentlemen upon the 
other side of the House, who had manifested so kind an interest 
in his faithfulness to his constituents." 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 903 



Chapter LXXXI. 

THE CUMBERLAND ROAD BILL. 

In 1806 Congress made an appropriation to construct 
a road from Cumberland, in Maryland, to the Ohio river, 
payable out of a two per cent fund derived from the sales 
of public lands within the limits of certain States, usually 
granted to States on their admission. By different enact- 
ments this road, by 1831, was authorized to be extended 
through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois to the Mississippi 
river. Some appropriations were made direct from the 
treasury. It was claimed that this road added to the 
value of the public lands and promoted their settle- 
ment and sales. After a time Congress authorized the 
erection of toll-gates on it by the States through which 
it passed, and in the end the road was abandoned by the 
government, and by act of Congress was transferred to 
the States through which it passed. It was a great work 
in its day, but is now hardly known by its former name, 
or in anywise much distinguished from other roads in 
the western States. 

On the 31st of March, 1840, when the bill for the con- 
tinuation of this road was before the Senate, Mr. Clay, of 
Alabama, moved to strike out the two per cent clause. 
Mr. Weight addi-essed the Senate, and fully explained 
his position and the reasons for his former votes and the 
one which he now intended to give. 

" Mr. Wkight said he did not rise to debate the merits of the 
Cumberland road bill. That duty he left to those who, from local 
position and more extensive acquaintance with the utility of the 
work, could better discharge it. Still, he had for some years now 
last past given his vote for these appropriations, and he desired 



904 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

to do so now. He was anxious that the bill should retain its 
usual form — the characteristics which had distinguished appro- 
priations for this road from those for internal improvements 
generally. This work was thus distinguished from the peculiar 
circumstances which had led Congress to undertake it, and appro- 
priations to continue it could have his support only upon the con- 
dition that those distinctions were carefully and fully preserved. 

" From these remarks it would be seen that his object was to 
discuss, not the general merits of the bill, but the particular 
motion of the Senator from Alabama [Mr. Clay], If that motion 
prevailed the bill would be placed beyond the reach of his vote, 
and, as he had learned, of the votes of several other Senators. 
He hoped the motion would not prevail, and he must ask a 
small portion of the time of the body for an attempt to show to 
the friends of the measure that it should not prevail. 

" What was the motion ? It was to strike out from the bill 
the following words : 

" ' Which said appropriations are made upon the same terms, and shall 
be subject to all the provisions, conditions, restrictions and limitations 
touching appropriations for the Cumberland road contained in the act enti- 
tled "An act to provide for continuing the construction and for the repair 
of the Cumberland road," approved the third day of March, eighteen Imn- 
dred and thirty-seven.' 

"A reference to the act of 1837 would show the effect of this 
proposed amendment, by showing the 'provisions, conditions, 
restrictions and limitations' contained in that act, subject to 
Avhich the bill, in its present shape, proposes to make these 
appropriations, but from which the amendment, if adopted, will 
free them, and leave the appropriations open, general and uncon- 
ditional. He was satisfied, too, that this examination would 
prove that the proposition to amend was even broader than the 
honorable mover intended or desired ; that there were ' conditions 
and limitations' in that act which even he did not desire to 
remove; from which he would not wish to relieve these appro- 
priations, in case they were to be made. 

" What, then, were the ' conditions, restrictions and limita- 
tions,' in the act of 1837, referred toV 

" The first was found in the first section of the act, in the fol- 
lowing words : 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 905 

" 'That the said road within the State of Illinois shall not be stoned or 
graveled, unless it can be done at a cost not greater than the average cost 
of stoning or graveling said road within the States of Ohio and Indiana.' 

" This, be presumed, was a ' limitation ' which the honorable 
mover of the amendment, and those who would vote with him, 
did not desire to repeal. 

"The second was in the same same section, and in the follow- 
ing words: 

" ' That, in all cases where it can be done, it shall be the duty of the super- 
intending oflBcers to cause the work on said road to be laid off in sections, 
and let out to the lowest substantial bidders, after due notice.' 

" Here, again, was a ' restriction ' which he did not suppose the 
opponents of the bill would be anxious to remove. 

" The third ' condition ' was found in the second section of this 

act of 1837, in the following words : 

" ' That the second section of an act tor the continuation of the Cumber- 
land road in the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, approved the 2d day 
of July, 1836, shall not be applicable to expenditures hereafter to be made 
on said road.' 

"The section of the act of 1836, here referred to, requires that 
the moneys appropriated shall be so expended as to complete the 
greatest possible continuous portions of the road, ' so that such 
finished parts thereof may be surrendered to the said States 
respectively.' Should the amendment prevail, this section of the 
act of 1836 would be again restored and made one of the 'limita- 
tions ' upon these appropriations, from which the second section 
of the act of 1837 had relieved them. This would be in no way 
objectionable to him, though he supposed it would be to the 
more immediate friends of the w^ork, inasmuch as the limitation, 
having been imposed in 1836, had been removed in 1837, at their 
instance. 

" These were the ' conditions, restrictions and limitations ' 
which he supposed the honorable mover of the amendment had 
not considered, and some of v/hich, at least, he presumed he would 
not desire to remove. He felt sure that some other Senators 
would be unwilling to part with the first two, as he well recol- 
lected they had been inserted in the act of 1837, after a severe 
struggle, and were then relied upon, by the honorable Senator 



906 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

who moved them [Mr. Clay, of Kentucky], and those who acted 
with him, as highly essential. 

" Yet it was not his object to discuss these points. He had 
simply referred to them, that Senators might not, unwittingly, 
adopt an amendment which should relieve these appropriations 
from conditions and limitations to which they had, upon former 
occasions, been strongly attached. 

"He was aware that the honorable mover of the amendment 
had another object, viz.: to get rid of the fourth section of the 
act of 1837, which was in the following words: 

" ' That the several sums hereby appropriated for the construction of the 
Cumberland road, in the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, shall be replaced 
by said States respectively out of the fund reserved to each for laying out 
and making roads under the direction of Congress, by the several acts passed 
for the admission of said States into the Union, on an equal footing with the 
original States.' 



'T>' 



"This is the real point of controversy involved in the amend- 
ment ; this the ' condition ' which it is the object of the honorable 
mover to test by a vote ; and this is the distinctive feature of 
these appropriations which he, Mr. W., wished to retain. To 
this point, therefore, this two per cent fund, and the propriety 
of continuing to jDledge these appropriations upon it, he should 
direct his remarks. He would be as brief as possible ; but an 
examination of the origin of that fund, of the appropriations for 
the Cumberland road, and the present state of facts as to both, 
would be necessary to make his argument clear and intelligible. 

" The cession by the State of Virginia to the United States of 
the territory north-west of the River Ohio contained, among 
others, the condition, that of that territory there should be 
formed not less than three nor more than five free republican 
States, which, under certain limitations prescribed, should be 
admitted into the Union upon an equal footing in all res^^ects 
with the original States. 

" The State of Ohio first made application for this admission, 
and, on the 30th day of April, 1802, Congress passed an act enti- 
tled 'An act to enable the people of the eastern division of the 
territory north-west of the River Ohio to form a Constitution and 
State government, and for the admission of such State into the 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 907 

Union on an equal footing with the original States, and for other 
purposes.' Among other provisions in this act, Congress, by the 
seventh section thereof, offered to the convention of the people of 
Ohio, ' for their free acceptance or rejection,' three several proposi- 
tions, intended for the mutual benefit of the State and the United 
States, and declared that, if accepted by the convention, they 
' shall be obligatory upon the United States.' The third of these 
propositions is the one material to this discussion, and is in the 
following words : 

" ' Third. The one-twentieth part of the net proceeds of the lauds lying 
within the said State, sold by Congress, from and after the thirtieth day of 
June next (1802), after deducting all expenses incident to the same, shall be 
applied to the laying out and making public roads, leading from the navi- 
gable waters emi-)tying into the Atlantic, to tM Ohio, to the said State, and through 
the same ; such roads to be laid out vv^Ur the autlwrity of Congress, with the 
consent of the several States through which the said road shall pass. Pramded, 
always, that the three foregoing propositions herein offered are on the con- 
ditions that the convention of the said State shall provide by an ordinance, 
irrevocable without the consent of tlie United States, that every and each tract 
of land sold by Congress, from and after the thirtieth day of June next, 
shall be and remain exempt from any tax laid by order or under the authority 
of the State, whether for State, county, township, or any other purpose 
whatever, for the term of five years from and after the day of sale.' 

" Here was a compact between this new State and this govern- 
ment, for the convention of Ohio did freely accept the proposi- 
tions and conform to their terms and requirements; and here was 
the compact which gave existence to the Cumberland road, and 
threw it upon the hands of the United States. 

"A'single step further will show the origin of the two per cent 
fund, as contradistinguished from that five per cent fund, or ' one- 
twentieth part of the net proceeds of the lands,' constituted by 
the compact last referred to, and devoted to the construction of 
roads from the Atlantic waters ' to the Ohio, to the said State, 
and through the same.' 

"On the 3d day of March, 1803, about eleven months after the 
passage of the act containing the propositions tendered to the 
convention of the people of Ohio, and which propositions that 
convention accepted and complied with. Congress passed an act 
entitled 'An act in addition to and in modification of the propo- 



908 Life and Tuies of Silas Wrioht. 

sitions contained in the act entitled,' etc., being the act of the 
30th of April, 1802, before referred to. This act conferred ujDon 
the new State many other and further advantages beyond those 
covered by the tliree propositions tendered to the convention in 
the former act ; but the only one of its provisions affecting this 
discussion is that found in its second section. It was unnecessary 
to read the section, which was long. The substance of it was, that 
three per cent, of the five per cent reserved in the ordinance 
whicli has been read, was directed to be paid over to the State, 
to be applied ' to the laying out, opening and making roads within 
the said State, and to no other purpose whatever,' thus leaving 
but two per cent of the net proceeds of the lauds to be expended 
* under the authority of Congress,' in ' laying out and making- 
public roads leading from the navigable waters emptying into the 
Atlantic, to the Ohio, to the said State, and through the same.' 
This act constituted the two per cent fund, by taking from the 
hands of Congress and giving to the State for expenditure three 
per cent of the five reserved to Congress by the original ordi- 
nance. 

" Still, the obligation upon Congress remained of expending the 
two per cent in the ' laying out and making public roads, leading 
from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic, to the 
Ohio, to the said State, and through the same;' and to discharge 
that obligation, this great and troublesome and expensive work, 
the Cumberland road, was commenced. 

"The chronological order of events would here call upon him 
to examine the first appropriations for the road; but he thought 
he should be able to accomplish the task he had undertaken with 
greater brevity, and make himself more perfectly understood, by 
following first the admission of the States, as far as that should 
be necessary for the question presented. 

" The next free republican State admitted into the Union from 
the territory north-west of the Ohio was Indiana, and the act of 
Congress for her admission was approved on the 19th day of 
April, 1816, The course pursued by Congress was very similar 
to that finally adopted with the State of Ohio, and it will not, 
therefore, be necessary to detain the Senate by the reading of 
either of the propositions submitted to the convention of the 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 909 

people of this State. It will suffice to say that, iipon this point, 
they varied from the original propositions submitted to tlie con- 
vention of Ohio in three particulars, viz. : 

" 1. Two per cent of the net proceeds of the lands only are 
reserved to be expended under the authority of Congress, and 
that fund is to be expended in laying out and making roads to 
and not through the State. 

" 2. Three per cent is reserved in the ordinance for and to be 
paid to the State. 

" 3. The three per cent is to be expended by the State in 
making roads, or canals, within it. 

"In all other substantial particulars the compact with Indiana 
was similar to that with Ohio. 

"The State of Illinois came next in the order of admission, 
the act of Congress for the purpose having been approved on the 
18th of April, 1818. The compacts with this State differed, in 
some respects, from both the former, but a short statement should 
relieve the Senate from reading the propositions, which were 
long. 

" 1. The two per cent fund is reserved, as in the case of Indiana, 
to make roads to, not through, the State ; but, as in the other 
two cases, is to be expended for that purpose, ' under the direc- 
tion of Congress.' 

" 2. The three per cent is reserved for, and to be paid to, the 
State, but is to be ' appropriated, by the Legislature of the State, 
for the encouragement of learning, of which one-sixth part shall 
be exclusively bestowed on a college or university.' 

"3. The equivalents are an exemption of military bounty 
lands from taxation for three years after patents issue, if they 
continue to be the property of the patentee or his heirs, and a 
stipulation that lands belonging to citizens of the United States, 
not residing in the State, shall never be taxed higher than the 
lands of resident citizens, in addition to the exemption from 
taxes of all government lands for five years after a sale. 

" Two remarks seemed to be called for from the compacts wltti 
the two last named States. The first was that the two per cent 
fund, to be expended 'by the authority of Congress,' or 'under 
the direction of Congress,' was reserved in both. The second 



910 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

was, that the three per cent reserved for, and to be paid to, the 
State, was not reserved, in the last two cases, with any reference 
to the continuation of any road ' leading from the navigable 
waters emptying into the Atlantic,' to either of the said States, 
and consequently not to the Cumberland road, because, as to 
Indiana, the fund might be applied to the making of roads, 
or canals, within the State, at its option; and as to Illinois, the 
Legislature was compelled, by the very terms of the ordinance, 
to apply it ' for the encouragement of learning.' The two per 
cent fund, therefore, was relied upon for the roads mentioned in 
the various ordinances, to be made under the direction of Con- 
gress, whether they were to be continued to or through the States 
which were parties, and not the three per cent, which was 
reserved for the States, was to be expended by them, at their 
pleasure, or for works or objects of a charactei" different from 
these roads. 

"He was now prepared to go back, in point of time, and exam- 
ine the appropriations for the Cumberland road to see how far 
the action of Congress hitherto had conformed to the basis of 
these appropriations laid in the ordinances which admitted the 
three States into the Union. 

" On the 29th of March, 1806, the President of the United States 
[Mr. Jefferson] approved an act of Congress entitled 'An act 
to regulate the laying out and making a road from Cumberland, 
in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio.' This act gave 
existence to the Cumberland road, and an examination of its pro- 
visions will sliow, what its title so well imports, that it was an 
earnest beginning of the fulfillment on the part of the United 
States of that compact with the new State of Ohio which has 
been before recited; that it was the commencement of a road 
'leading from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic 
to the Ohio, to the said State.' It was not material for his pur- 
pose to review the provisions of the act, any further than to 
examine the appropriating section and see whether it kept to the 
terms of the ordinances and to the fund thereby reserved for the 
object. The sixth section of the act Avas this one, and was in the 
following words: 

" 'Sec. 6. And he itfurtJwr enacted. That the sum of thirty thousand dol- 



Life and Times of Silas Wbigiit. 911 

lars be and the same is hereby appropriated to defray the expense of laying 
out and making said road. And tlie President is hereby authorized to (h-aw, 
from time to time, on the treasury for such parts, or at any one time for the 
whole of said sum, as he shall judge the service requires. Wfiich sum of 
tliirty tJiousand dollars shall be paid, first, out of the fund of two per cent reserved 
for laying out and making roads to tM State of Ohio, by virtue of the seventh 
section of an act passed on the thirtieth day of April, one thousand eight 
hundred and two, entitled "An act to enable the people of the eastern divi- 
sion of the territory north-west of the River Ohio to form a Constitution and 
State government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on 
an equal footing with the original States, and for other purposes;" three 
per cent of the appropriation contained in the said seventh section being 
directed by a subsequent law to the laying out, opening and making roads 
within the said State of Ohio ; and secondly, out of any money in the trea- 
sury not otherwise appropriated, chargeable upon and reimbursable at the 
treasury, by said fund of two per cent as the same shall accrue.'' 

" Here we are shown fully the origin of this work called the 
Cumberland road, the basis upon which its adoption by Con- 
gress rested, and the fund from which the expenditures were to 
be defrayed. In every respect the work was peculiar, as a work 
of internal improvement prosecuted by the authority and under 
the direction of Congress. 

" This very first act, too, as its terms fully show, adopted the 
principle of anticipating the avails of this two per cent fund by a 
general appropriation from the treasury, charged upon the fund 
and to be reimbursable out of it. It was not necessary for liim 
to defend the wisdom of this policy at tliat early day. It was 
sufficient that it was then adopted and was one of the exposi- 
tions by the then fathers of the powers and duties of Congress 
growing out of these new and peculiar compacts with the new 
States. It was too late for him now to question the soundness 
of the principles upon which they acted or the wisdom of the 
policy Avhich guided their course. Nearly every Congress, from 
1806 to the present time, had followed in their footsteps, and 
every President of the United States, from Mr. Jefferson to tlie 
present incumbent, had approved bills appropriating money for 
this road. 

" Had these bills followed the form of appropriation found in 
the law of 1806 above quoted? lie had taken great pains to 
answer this inquiry correctly and truly, and, with two single 



912 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

exceptions, upon which he would particularly remark, he believed 
that every appi'opriation for the survey and construction of the 
road had been expressly, in the law making it, charged upon the 
two per cent fund and made reimbursable out of it. He had 
found some bills appropriating money for the repairs of those 
portions of the road which had been once called completed 
which did not contain this pledge, as he thought they should 
not. These were mere appropriations for the preservation and 
security of the property of the United States, as this road, when 
finished, clearly was, until transferred to the States or otherwise 
disposed of. It was barely possible that there might be some 
further exception of appropriations for survey and construction, 
but he could not think there were, as he had intended to make 
his examination full and accurate. 

" How, then, did the two exceptions stand ? The first is an act 
of Congress, approved on the 15th of May, 1820, when Mr. Mon- 
roe was President. It is peculiar in itself, and perhaps ought not 
to be considered an exception to the rule under discussion. Its 
title is, 'An act to authorize the appointment of commissioners to 
lay out the road therein mentioned.' This will show that the 
whole object of the act was a survey. The act has a preamble, 
which is in these words: ' Whereas, by the continuation of the 
Cumberland road from Wheeling, in the State of Virs^inia, throuo^h 
the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the lands of the United 
States may hecome more valuable; ' thus placing the legislation 
upon a ground separate from and independent of the compacts 
with the States and the fund therein provided. The act then 
goes on to provide for the survey of a road from Wheeling to 
some point on the left bank of the Mississippi river, between 
St. Louis and the mouth of the Illinois river, and appropriates 
#10,000 generally, to be paid out of any unappropriated money 
in the treasury, to defray the expense of the survey. The second 
section of this act contains this emjihatic proviso: 

" ' Provided always, and it is hereby enacted and declared, That nothing in 
:his act contained, or that shall be clone in pursuance thereof, shall be deemed 
or construed to imply any obligation on tlie jiart of the United States to 
make, or to defray the expense of making, the road hereby authorized to 
be laid out, or of any pai-t thereof.' 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 913 

"Such was tlie tirist exception lie had been able to discover, 
and he remarked again, that it was very doubtful how far it 
could fairly be considered an exception, within the proj>er limits 
of the discussion. The act was certainly sal geueris, as a piece 
of legislation relating to the Cumberland road; but such as it 
was, he had felt bound to present it as an exception to the rule 
for which he was contending. 

"The second and only other exception which his research 
bad enabled him to discover was a bill approved on the 2d of 
March, 1833, at the close of Gen. Jackson's tii'st term. This 
was a plain case of departure from the rule of charging these 
appi-oj)riations upon the two per cent fund, as the appropriations 
made in this law for continuing the construction of the road in 
the three States, separate from the appropriations for repairs, 
were direct in manner and lieavy in amount. He was happy, 
however, to be able to destroy the force of this exception as a 
precedent, upon the authority of the then President himself. He 
spoke from personal information from that distinguished indi- 
vidual when he said tliat his approbation of that bill was an 
oversight, suffered in the hurry of business, at the close of a 
short session of Congress, when all who have been here know 
that a great majority of the bills of the session go to the Presi- 
dent durino- the last eveninu". All who were here at the session 
of 1832-33 Avill remend>er that it was one of the most exciting 
periods of our history, and that an unusual number of bills, of 
the deepest interest, finally passed the two Houses, and reached 
the President Avithin the last fcAV hours of the session, which 
closed with Saturday, the second of March. 

"An examination of this bill will present a further and strong 
apology for the oversight of the President. Instead of being 
the usual and ordinary appropriation bill for the Cumberland 
road, it is an appropriation bill of an anomalous character, coup- 
ling harbors, rivers, roads and a variety of other subjects in the 
same bill. Its title is a very imperfect index of its contents, and 
yet it is evidently made up of the substance of the titles of three 
or four originally independent bills. It is 'An act making appro- 
priations for carrying on certain works heretofore commenced, 
for the improvement of harbors and rivers; and also for continu- 
es 



914 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

ing and repairing the Cumberland road, and certain territorial 
roads.' It embraces more than thirty separate and independent 
appropriations, which take from the treasury more than one mil- 
lion of dollars. In such a bill, and reaching the President at 
such a period, it was not in the least surpi'isiug to him that the 
absence of this qualification to the Cumberland road appropi'ia- 
tions was not noticed. 

" Still, whether the apology should be deemed sufficient or not, 
he was able to state the fact that this omission was not noticed, 
and that tlie bill would not have received the approbation of the 
then President, however important these and the other appro- 
priations it contained, if the omission had been observed ; so 
important did he consider the retention of the two per cent 
clause, as it is called, as a principle upon which the appropria- 
tions for this road rest, and a marked characteristic to distinguish 
them from open and unrestricted appropriations for internal 
improvements. 

" He was aware it had been said, and would again be said, that 
the expenditures already made upon the road had more than 
consumed the two per cent fund reserved and applicable to its 
construction, and therefore that the clause in the present bills 
was wholly useless. He wished to meet this objection to the 
clause, as he did all other points of this argument, fairly. He 
was, therefore, willing to admit that he did not expect the two 
per cent fund of the three States would be sufficient to reimburse 
the treasury for all past expenses uj^on this work; but that did 
not, to him, constitute a good reason for separating this essential 
feature from the bill, and passing it without it. The practice 
commenced with the commencement of the work, to anticipate 
the moneys which this fund was to yield, and if those anticipa- 
tions had been pushed too far, it was no reason, to his mind, why 
we should abandon our hold upon that portion of the fund which 
remains. 

" All the three States yet embrace within their limits unsold 
lands, and consequently portions of this fund are yet to be col- 
lected from all. The amount, too, is considerable. He had been 
favored with an official statement from the General Land Office, 
brought down to the close of the third quarter of the last year. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 915 

wliicli showed that the lansold lands in the States of Ohio, Indiana 
and Illinois, at that time, amounted to 20,835,234 acres. Even 
at the present minimum price of the public lands, the two per 
cent from this quantity would, if lie had made no error in the 
calculation, yield to this fund more than $670,000. If, as some 
suppose, the State of Missouri should be embraced in the estimate 
of future revenue to the fund, it would be more than doubled. 
There are 32,154,897 acres of unsold land in that State, and, at 
the minimum price, that quantity will pay more than |800,000 to 
this fund. But when it is considered that the unsold land in all 
these States must become more valuable as settlements increase, 
and improvements in its vicinity are extended, who shall say 
what limit shall be tixed to this contingent fund ? In any event 
it seemed to him a plain dictate of duty to secure whatever it is 
to yield to reimburse the treasury fur this expensive work. 

" Shall we do this, if we pass the amendment now proposed, 
and thus, by our own act, release the pledge for the future? 
What is our daily experience now as to the other States ? But 
a few days since the Senate passed a bill to pay this fund to the 
State of Mississippi. Another bill is now upon its passage, or 
has already gone to the House of Representatives, to make the 
same payment to the State of Alabama. These States have come 
here with demands for the money, which we have not found our- 
selves able to resist. To Michigan and Arkansas the whole five 
per cent was yielded as one of the terms of their admission into 
the Union. Other new States will come, after these examples, 
and who can make himself believe that, if we strike out this 
clause, and thus release our hold upon the future accruing reve- 
nue to the fund from the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and 
Missouri, those States will not come, when their road shall have 
been completed, and tell us, up to 1840 you held and expended 
this portion of our two per cent fund, but in that year you, by 
your own express act, refused longer to pledge it for the Cum- 
berland road, and the money which has come into your treasury 
since that period is ours, upon the principles which have governed 
your conduct toward the other new States? Who can convince 
himself that our successors will be able to resist such an applica- 
tion from these States ? 



916 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

"To the unconditional opponents of this bill he was aware 
that this reasonin-j,- would be unavailing; nay, that his very dec- 
laration of the imijortance of tlie i)rovision to hiiu Avould add 
to their anxiety to press the motion, that they might force him 
and others who held similar opinions to vote against the whole 
measure. Such he knew to be the condition of the honorable 
mover of the amendment. He was conscientiously opposed to 
the bill in any shape, and its defeat is the object of his motion. 
This was fair and gave no ground of complaint. Any fair and 
open and manly opposition he had a right to practice — indeed, 
with his opinions, it was his duty to practice — and such was his 
present proposition for amendment. 

"To those, however, who were the fi-iends of this road, who 
desired appropriations for it, he felt that he had a right to 
appeal with success upon this question. To them the pledge 
of this fund could not be objectionable, even if they did not 
consider it any longer useful. It could do no luirm, even if it 
was of no substantial service to the treasury, and they certainly 
would indulge those who consider it essential, so long as they 
ask nothing more tlian what is looked upon as a nugatory provi- 
sion. They will not bring the fate of the bill into jeopardy 
rather than not discharge it from what they consider, at the 
worst, but harmless surplusage; and that, too, after they know 
that others equally friendly consider the provision projjosed to 
be stricken out one of essential, — of vital importance. 

"He must be permitted to believe, therefore, that however far 
he may have fallen short of producing conviction upon the minds 
of either the foes or the friends of tlie measure, as to the impor- 
tance of retaining the pledge of this two per cent fund, the sim- 
ple information that he and others so held it would induce every 
friend to the Cumberland road to vote against the proposed 
amendment." 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 917 



Chapter LXXXII. 

ABOLITION PETITIONS. 

At the first session of the twenty-sixth Congress peti- 
tions for the abolition of slavery were often presented to 
both Honses. On the 13th of February, 1840, Mr. Clay, 
of Kentucky, presented one from Michael H. Barton, 
praying for the abolition of slavery. This produced a 
stormy debate, in which Mr. Whight took part, more on 
account of what was then said than because he partici- 
pated in the feelings which the petition occasioned. He 
thus addressed the Situate : 

" Ml-. Wright said he had never before, he believed, attempted 
to address the Senate when an abolition petition was under con- 
sideration. If he justly appreciated his duty, it was quite likely 
he should remain silent now, though he had not risen to discuss 
abolitionism or to protract this very desultory debate. Still, 
some remarks had fallen from his colleague, and from the Senator 
from Kentucky [Mr. Clay], which his duty to absent friends 
seemed to him to require him to notice. 

" Tlie honorable Senator [Mr. Clay] has taken the liberty to 
refer to a vote lately given in the other branch of Congress in 
reference to the disposition of these petitions; to allude to 
the fact that some of the members of the New York delega- 
tion, the political friends of Mr. W., had voted for the rule 
adopted in the House, and then had stated that all parties in the 
Legislature of the State were now expressing their decided repre- 
hension of that vote. He should not feel at liberty to make 
the action of either of these leo;islative bodies the subject of 
remark upon this occasion, had he not been forced to do so by 
the course pursued by the honorable Senator; and he wished it to 
be distinctly understood that, in making the short reply he 
intended, he was not acting as the authorized apologist or defender 



918 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

of the friends who had given the vote complained of. If the 
vote required apology, they would be found ready to make it for 
themselves. If it required defense, they were much better able, 
from character and talent and influence, to defend themselves 
than he was to defend them. They were responsible for their 
acts to the constituents who had sent them here, not to himself 
or to this body. 

"Still, as the honorable Senator had referred to the vote and 
to the action of the State Legislature, not this year simply, but 
the last also, it was proper in itself, and due to those who were 
censured, that he should state the facts as he understood them to 
exist. The Senator had spoken of the expression of the Legis- 
lature of New York last year, upon this subject of the disposition 
of abolition petitions in Congress, as having followed a political 
revolution in the State, and of the form of that expression. He 
must remind the gentleman that the expression to which he 
alluded as having been made last year, was made in but one 
branch of the New York Legislature. The political revolution 
of which he spoke had not then reached the State Senate, and 
that body did not unite in tlie expression in favor of these peti- 
tioners. The House of Assembly, the popular branch of the 
Legislature, was then in tlie hands of the political friends of the 
Senator, and it did make a strong expression, supposed to favor 
the abolitionists. It did declare the Atherton resolution, so 
called, a denial of the right of petition. He did not now recol- 
lect the exact form of the resolutions or the substance of the 
expression beyond this point, but as to this he was sure he could 
not be mistaken. The Atherton resolutions were denounced, 
because it was said they were a denial of the right of petition. 
What disposition did the Atherton resolutions make of abo- 
lition petitions ? They were to be received and immediately laid 
upon the table, without reading or printing, and without debate. 
This was the denial of the right of petition last year, according 
to the expressed sense of the whig branch of the New York 
Legislature. 

" Now, certain of the democratic members of the House of 
Representatives from that State had voted to establish a rule of 
that House, pressed upon them upon the motions of prominent 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 919 

whigs, by which these petitions were not to be received. In 
other words, they had voted for a rule which was, in fact and in 
terms, just what their opponents in the Legislature of their State, 
one year ago, declared to be the true and practical effect of the 
Atherton resolutions. This was what these members had done, 
and his object was accomplished in giving the facts. He knew 
not what either party in the Legislature of the present year were 
doing upon this subject, except that he had noticed in the public 
papers that some resolutions had been introduced into the popular 
branch of that Legislature, by a prominent federal' member, cen- 
suring those who had voted for the rule lately adopted in the 
House of Representatives. If there had been action upon them, 
the account of it had not met his notice. 

" His honorable coUeao-ue had discussed at some length the 
politics of their State, and of the various pai-ties in it; the ques- 
tions, which were democratic and which federal; which were and 
which were not abolition, and the like, and had pronounced his 
conclusions with some positiveness. In doing this, he had, as 
Mr. W. thought, done injustice to a political friend of his, or he 
would not have entered into the discussion. He understood his 
honorable colleague to say that the member of the popular branch 
of the present Legislature of their State who was, at its organ- 
ization, the candidate for Speaker of the administration party in 
the House, had, upon the late election of a United States Senator, 
and when his colleague was elected, voted for a prominent abo- 
litionist, a gentleman by the name of Gerrit Smith. If he cor- 
rectly understood the remarks of his colleague, this vote was 
said to have been given by the gentleman alluded to upon the 
open viva voce vote for Senator in the House of which the gentle- 
man was a member. Did his colleague so state ? [Mr. Tall- 
madge replied, yes, that was the way I understood it.] Mr. 
W. said he had not made this inquiry thus minutely for 
the purpose of contradicting it upon his own responsibility, as 
he had no personal knowledge how the fact was; but he had done 
so for the purpose of expressing his belief that the statement 
was erroneous, and giving the grounds of that belief. 

" He well remembered that, pending the proceedings in the 
Legislature of the State touching the election of a Senator, a 



920 Life and Tlues of Silas Wright. 

report sprang iip in this city, and in one wing of tlris capitol, 
that all the friends of the administration in the popular branch 
of that Legislature had voted for this ai'dent abolitionist, this 
Gerrit Smith, as their candidate for the Senate of the United 
States. The rumor produced deep feeling here. He was called 
upon by a great number of members of Congress, from all (piar- 
ters of the Union, for information as to the fact. He had none 
to communicate. He had receiAed no intimation of any such 
action on the part of his political friends; but the mails from the 
north were deranged by the stormy and severe weather of the 
period, and he was unable to say what action had been had, or 
what information others might have received. He entertained 
the most confident belief that the report was false, and so stated 
to his friends, but he could not give it authorized contradiction. 
This report, however, necessarily led him to examine that vote 
with deep interest and gi-eat care, when it did reach him. The 
Albany Argus, a public journal to which his colleague had alluded 
as a leading federal paper, was his authority, and was it fedej-al, 
democratic, or democratic republican, which last his colleague 
seemed to suppose the real name of his party, it was authority 
upon which he relied with a quiet confidence. The vote given, 
lapon the election of a Senator, in both branches of the Legisla- 
ture, he found in the columns of that paper in detail; the name 
of every member voting, and the name of the candidate voted 
for by each being distinctly stated. He examined the account 
with care, and could not say he felt much surprise when he per- 
ceived that not one single individual of any party had given his 
vote for the supposed formidable abolition candidate, Gerrit 
Smith. 

"He could not, however, in justice to his own feelings, leave 
this matter here, and permit the inference that the mistake of his 
colleague was wholly without foundation. He would, therefore, 
relate what he had understood had taken place at some stage of 
the proceedings preliminary to the election of a Senator. He 
supposed the account had ajjpeared in the public papers, but he 
had not seen it there, and related it from mere report. It was 
this: a law or resolution was before the Legislature, designed to 
prescribe the time and manner of electing a Senator. To mem- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 921 

bers of the minority of the House, other candidates, taken from 
the ranks of their political opponents, were more acceptable 
than his colleague. Some of these members proposed to make 
the election directly by inserting the name of the Senator in the 
bill or resolution, and thus declaring the election instead of pre- 
scribino- the time and manner for future action. Pursuing this 
feeling, the names of a variety of candidates were proposed, and 
among them Gerrit Smith, — his abolitionism out of the question, 
a most bitter opponent of this administration. That name might 
have come from the gentleman alluded to by his colleague, but it 
was under such circumstances and for such objects, as he verily 
believed; if it came from him at all, which fact lie could not 
assert. It was a choice among his enemies, not his voluntary 
preference as a politician or a citizen, as his viva voce vote upon 
the election should have been. This explanation of the error of 
his colleague he had given, as he had before stated, rather from 
rumor than from any referable authority; but he did not doubt 
it was the real explanation and the only one of which his state- 
ment was susceptible. 

" He was now brought to the apparent object of the remarks 
of his colleague, and that was the point of most materiality and 
most delicacy, the interests of others having been disposed of. 
Why was the statement of his colleague made, but to show that 
his friends and the friends of the administration in the north are 
the abolitionists there? He could see no other object, and other 
portions of the remarks of his colleague seemed to him to have a 
similar object and tendency. 

" In reference to all such remarks, calculated to produce per- 
sonal irritation, he would take this occasion to say to his col- 
league that it was now something more than six years since they 
had taken their seats together in this body; that their public 
acts had been known to the Senate, if not to their constituents 
and the country ; that it was therefore folly for them to discuss 
the question here, which was a democrat, which was a federalist 
or which was a democratic republican in politics. Their acts, 
not their words, must determine that point; and the Senate itself 
would judge, indepeiulently of their impressions, what the pro- 
per classification of each was. So also with the question of abo- 



922 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

litionism. Plis action upon that disturbing subject was known to 
this body and the country. If it made him an abolitionist, it 
was in vain for him to reason against the conclusion. If it did 
not, any remonstrances and declarations from him against the 
charge, come from what quarter it might, was unnecessary here. 
So with the President of the United States. His declarations 
and acts and votes as to these petitions and this whole subject 
were perfectly known to every individual they addressed; and 
was it necessary for him, as the avowed personal and political 
friend of that officer — as he had been since he had had the 
honor of a seat here and still continued to be — was it necessary 
for him to defend the President against the charge of aboli- 
tionism? Not here ! not here ! 

"Why, then, Mr. W. asked, were these points debated here 
upon such an occasion, and these charges directly made, or impli- 
edly made, by his colleague? During the whole of their public 
service together hitherto, however wide might have been their 
political differences of opinion, it gave him sincere pleasure to 
state that there had not been one particle of personal unkind- 
ness between his colleague and himself. This condition of their 
personal relations he earnestly hoped mignt continue ; and to 
that end he would now, as he had upon all former occasions, care- 
fully abstain from all remarks calculated to excite unkind feeling. 
He hoped his colleague would imitate him in this, and relieve 
them from the necessity of disturbing the Senate by their per- 
sonal or local differences. They had both had experience enough 
in the body to know that all such collisions were unpleasant to 
the members of the Senate. Should they, then, thus afflict them ? 
For himself, nothing but a sense of self-respect could induce him 
to do it. When they came there together they were political 
friends. Those members from other States whom he had found 
there as political friends, and who yet remained there, with very 
few exceptions, were yet personal and political friends. Those 
whom he had found as political opponents, with exceptions 
still less numerous, were at this moment his respected opponents 
in the body. Still, he had experienced personal kindness from 
all, as he knew his colleague had also; and should they now 
strive to make all unhni)py ^'7 their personal or local collisions? 



Life and Tuies of Silas Weight. 923 

He would not lead in such a course, and, if compelled to follow, 
it would be with reluctance and regret. 

" He had never charged federalism upon his colleague, nor had 
he charged abolitionism upon his party, notwithstanding their 
course in the last Legislature. He was not in the habit of char- 
acterizing men or parties by names, as epithets. He chose to 
state facts and let conclusions follow. His colleague had referred, 
with some triumph, to a political revolution in the State. As a 
fact, he could state that that revolution brought into office and 
place a Lieutenant-Governor who was an abolitionist, as far as 
his responses to the abolition committee could make him one. 
Yet, he was not disposed, even upon that fact, to pronounce the 
whole party abolitionists, nor would he do so. He preferred to 
let acts and principles and associations determine these points, 
as he did, who were democrats and who were federalists. The 
truth and the facts were his material reliance for himself and his 
friends. [Mr. Tallmadge said he would take the explanation of 
his colleague, as he thought the variation was of no material 
importance. He coincided in the sentiment that this was not the 
proper place for political explanations between himself and col- 
league. His colleague, some years since, in his usual complacent 
way, told him that, as to their political differences, their common 
constituents would settle that question. They have settled it, 
and settled it three times over. They have pronounced their 
opinion of this destructive administration, and of the sub-treasury 
bill, which, in his haste to get it through this body, the patriotic 
zeal of the chairman of the Committee on Finance had impelled 
him to override the common courtesies of legislation. The per- 
sonal relations of himself and his colleague had always been of a 
friendly nature, and on his part they should continue so; but he 
was not to be read lectures to by his colleague, and it was not 
necessary to remind him of their personal relations.] Mr. Wright 
said he was aware of his trespass upon the feelings of the Senate 
in again throwing himself before it. He rose to reply to a single 
remark of his colleague, and but one; and he did that because he 
was convinced, without an explanation, that remark would be 
misunderstood and misconstrued to the prejudice as well of his 
colleague as himself. 



924 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

" The remark to wliicli he alluded was, that he had been want- 
ing in courtesy in his action in relation to the independent trea- 
sury l)ill. If his colleague referred to courtesy to the Senate, as 
toward those who were members of the body when that bill was 
acted upon, he had to say to him that those were points he could 
not discuss with him; that the Senate, as it was at the time, and 
those who were Senators at the time, were his judges as to the 
propriety or impropriety of his course upon the passage of the 
bill in question. If any of those gentlemen, who were his coactors 
and his witnesses, had charges to make against him for the man- 
ner in which his duties were discharged in relation to that measure, 
it would be his duty, as it would be his pleasure, to listen to them, 
and to admit their justice or show their injustice, as the facts 
might warrant; but by others he could not be called to account 
for his courtesy, or want of it, to them. 

" If his colleague intended to charge want of courtesy toward 
himself, as he, Mr. W., was infonned that charge had been made 
by friends of his colleague at the seat of government of their 
State, it was proper that the Senate, and their common constiu- 
euts, thould understand upon what foundation such a charge 
must rest, and upon what facts it must be sustained, if sustained 
at all. To make that explanation was his present object. 

"The bill in question finally passed the Senate on Thursday of 
the week, he believed the twenty-third day of January last. The 
order for engrossment was made on the Friday previous. By the 
mail which arrived from the north on the evening of Saturday, 
the twenty-fifth of January, he received from his colleague a 
letter dated at the Astor House, in the city of New York, on the 
twenty-third day of the month, the very day on which the bill 
finally passed the Senate. This letter gave him the first informa- 
tion of the ill-health of his colleague, and of his having been 
detained by sickness when on his way to take his seat here. The 
letter contained a request from his colleague to himself to have 
the final question upon this bill postponed, until he could be in 
his place. In a few moments after the letter reached his hands, 
he learned that the same conveyance which brought the letter to 
him brought also his colleague to the city. 

"These are the facts. He had sjiokeji of dates from memory. 



Life asd Times of Silas Wright. 925 

but belived lie was not mistaken. And under this state of 
facts he was well ini'ormed that a friend of his colleague had 
reported at Albany that this request had been made from his 
colleague to him, and that he had refused the delay asked for. 
He would not suspect his colleague of having been instrumental 
in ffiviuff existence or circulation to the falsehood, but, without 
this explanation, those who had heard the statement and should 
see the remark of his colleague to which he was now replying, 
would be likely to connect the present charge of want of courtesy 
with this story of the letter, and to all such his silence under the 
charge would be considered as an admission of its truth and of 
its applicability to the report referred to. To prevent that con- 
sequence to his colleague or himself, was his present object, and 
having accomplished that, he had nothing more to say." 



926 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter LXXXllI. 

THE NEW YORK INDIAN TREATY. 

The New York Indians adhered to the Crown during 
the Revolutionary War. In 1784 and 1789, all, except 
the Mohawks, treated with our government, ceding to it 
all their lands west of the State of New York, and having 
confirmed to them all lying east of the specified line. 
The Mohawks, with Brandt, whose sister had been the 
wife of Sir William Johnson, retired and settled at the 
west end of Lake Ontario, in Canada. Massachusetts 
originally claimed all the lands west of that State to the 
Pacific under her charter. New York claimed all within 
her present boundaries and to tlie far west, and volunta- 
rily ceded to the old confederacy whatever belonged to 
lier west of its limits. Both conceded that the Indians 
had possessory rights. It was finally agi-eed between 
these States that New York should have the political or 
government Jurisdiction, and Massachusetts the right of 
soil in the western part of the State, with the exclusive 
right to acquire the Indian title. The United States 
claimed the right of prohibiting sales by the Indians 
without their consent, and that all purchases should be 
by a regular treaty made by their lawful representatives 
and consented to by the Senate of the United States ; all 
of which were assented to by both States. This pre-emp- 
tive right Massachusetts conveyed to Robert Morris, 
reserving to herself the right to be represented when the 
Indian title should be acquired. Morris conveyed his 
rights to individuals called the " Ogden Land Company." 
The Indians had conveyed all their rights to the pre- 
emptors except four reservations — the Tonawanda, Buf- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 927 

falo Creek, Cattaraugus and Allegany — and these they 
sought to acquire. 

In the fall of 1837, unsolicited. President Van Buren 
requested the author to act as commissioner in negotia- 
tions for the sale of these reservations, and he attended 
and subsequently formed a treaty with the Indians. Gen. 
Henry A. S. Dearborn represented Massachusetts during a 
portion of the negotiation, and J. Trowbridge, of Buffalo, 
during the residue, ceding these reservations, and which 
had been amended and the amendments duly assented to. 
This treaty was under consideration, in executive session, 
on the 25th of March, 1840, when Mr. Weight addressed 
the following remarks to the Senate, which he carefully 
wrote out with his own hand for publication in the Con- 
gressional Globe : 

" Mr. Wright said he must precede the direct discussion o± 
the treaty by a few preliminary remarks, calculated to show the 
grounds upon which he acted, and the considerations which had 
governed him, in the examination of the complicated case pre- 
sented in the book of printed documents which had been laid 
before the Senate. 

" And his first remark of this character was, that, if he knew 
himself, his principal motive, in urging the final consummation 
of this treaty upon the Senate, was his dee}) conviction of the 
benefits, present and future, which would be conferred upon the 
sinking bands of Indians, who were parties to it from its final 
confirmation. He was well aware that, in making this declara- 
tion, he was subjecting himself to double suspicion. These 
Indians were within his own State, and it would be assumed that 
the whites were anxious for their final removal out of tlieir way. 
Not so, in fact, to an extent wdiich would warrant a removal in 
any degree unjust. The bands had become too small, too much 
worn away by that contact with the whites which is destruction 
to the Indian, to leave any fear, from their remaining, upon the 
minds of their white neighbors. The territory they retain, too, 
had become too small to excite an extensive cupidity for its pos- 
session, or any strong hope of profit from its purchase by the white 



92H Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

man. Then the treaty contained no provision for the forcible 
removal of any of these Indians, and tlierefore considerations of 
this character could have but a (|ualified influence in the 
mattei'. 

"The real truth was, and he owed it to his constituents to 
state it, that a just and rational sympathy for this perishing rem- 
nant of a once mighty savage confederacy prevailed much more 
strongly in favor of the treaty than any motives of individual or 
associated interest. True it was that all the bands Avere in the 
midst of a dense population, and that one portion of one of them 
was upon the border of a large and growing city, imbibing its 
vices with the readiness with which the dry earth absorbs the 
rain which falls upon it; and yet all that dense population, even 
that incommoded city, would be the last to urge a removal of 
these Indians against their interests, and the first to censure him 
if he sJiould ui-ge the proclamation of a treaty, for that purpose, 
which Avas not palpably beneficial to the suffering red men. 

" He Avas liable to suspicion, too, as favoring the interests of 
the company who held the pre-emptive right to the lands of the 
Seneca band of these Indians, when they shall surrender the pos- 
session. He believed the members of this comjjany Avere mostly, 
and perhaps entirely, residents of his State ; and hence it might 
be believed that his action was infiuenced by their persuasion, or 
influence, or interest. It Avould become his duty, in the course 
of the discussion, to speak more particularly of this company and 
of their rights; but it Avas eiu)ugh now to say, that but one single 
member of it, to his knowledge, had ever mentioned the subject 
of this treaty to him ; that this Avas a call Avithin the last tAvo or 
three days, and since his opinions had been formed, his course 
marked out, and his preparations made for this discussion ; that 
the individual Avas Thomas L. Ogden, Esq., of the city of Ncav 
York, a gentleman of the legal profession, of advanced age and 
great eminence, and whose call Avas made upon him as a known 
friend of the treaty, and not to persuade him to become so. 

" If, then, he should hereafter be able to shoAV that the treaty 
was beneficial to the Indians, he hoped he should be credited in 
the declaration that his anxiety for its final confirmation Avas 
predicated upon their interests, rather than upon the interested 



Life and Thies of Silas Wright. 929 

wishes of his constituents, or the selfish desires of the pre-emption 
company. 

" His next preliminary remark was, that, in discussing the 
merits of this treaty, he should pass entii-ely over that mass of 
evidence which had been collected against it by those mistaken 
philanthropists — mistaken in his judgment — who opposed its 
confirmation upon the ground that they were, at some future 
day, to civilize these Indians in their present locations. To the 
purity of the motives of these enthusiasts he yielded the fullest 
belief; but in the reality of their hopes he had long since lost all 
confidence. The idea of civilizing the Indians of our continent 
had once been a rich source of hope to him ; but practical obser- 
vation and experience had compelled him to abandon the delu- 
sion. Many worthy and good men yet retained their confidence 
in the practicability of the undertaking ; but he could only say 
to them that, when he should see the deer of the forest the 
domestic animal of the farm, and the partridge of the woods the 
familiar fowl of the barn-yard, then, and not till then, should he 
again hope for the practical civilization of the Indian. 

" A further remark was, that he should enter upon the discus- 
sion with a full and perfect understanding, assented to upon all 
sides of the Senate, that the character and standing and credit of 
the commissioner who negotiated the treaty on the pai't of the 
United States remained unimpeached and unimpeachable, and 
that his statements of fact were to be implicitly relied upon in 
all matters touching the execution of the treaty by the Indians. 
[To this position the honorable chairman of the committee and 
all the dissenting members assented.] Another rule for the dis- 
cussion on his part would be, that the commissioner on the part 
of the State of Massachusetts, Gen. H. A. S. Dearborn, was pres- 
ent at all the transactions, the validity of which are now in 
dispute, and is a respectable, credible and disinterested witness 
to every fact to which he gives testimony. 

"With these preliminary remarks, he would proceed to the 
discussion of the treaty and the facts upon which it rested. 

"A question had been raised as to the right of the New York 
Indians to their 'Green Bay lands,' so called; but inasmuch as 
the history of that matter had been fully gone into by the honor- 
59 



930 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

able chairman of the committee [Mr. Sevier], and by his honor- 
able friend from Georgia [Mr. Lumpkin], he would not consume 
time with it here. The treaty between the United States and 
the Menomonee tribe of Indians, of the 8th of February, 1831, 
by which the latter ceded to the United States, for the benefit of, 
and 'as a home to, the several tribes of New York Indians,' 
500,000 acres of land in the now Wisconsin territory, and the 
former paid in money for that cession the sum of $20,000, was 
sufficient for his purpose. It established the right of the New 
York Indians to that land, independently of any action of their 
own; though certain of the bands — the Senecas not included — 
had long previously purchased of the Menomonees, for the bene- 
fit of the Six Nations, a much larger tract of country, and had 
paid some $12,000 in cash as purchase-money therefor. Yet dis- 
putes arose between them and the Menomonees as to the author- 
ity of the persons with whom they contracted either to sell the 
lands or to receive the pay therefor; and, the proceeding having 
taken place in pursuance of a consent previously obtained from 
the President of the United States [Mr. Monroe] by the New 
York Indians, the treaty of 1831 was negotiated by the United 
States as a compromise between the Six Nations of New York 
and the Menomonee tribe. Hence the estate of the New York 
Indians in their Green Bay lands. 

"He was aware that the original cession from the Menomonees 
required that the New York Indians should remove to the lands, 
and reside thereon as their home, within three years from the 
date of the treaty ; but the cession to the United States was 
positive and perfect; the condition of forfeiture a forfeiture to 
the United States and not to the Menomonees; and hence the 
whole title was in the United States and the New York Indians. 
This being the fact, the United States had, since the treaty of 
cession from the Menomonees and before the expiration of the 
three years, entered into a further treaty with the New York 
Indians, by which they were released from the condition of 
removal to the lands witliin three years, and the time of their 
removal was to be fixed by the President. That time has never 
been fixed, and therefore their right remains precisely what it 



Life and Times of Silas Wrigut. 931 

was after the execution oi the treaty of 1831 with the Meuo- 
monees. 

"It is now said that this right dei^ends upon the mere indul- 
gence of the President, and that the known determination of 
these Indians not to remove to Green Bay places it in his power 
to terminate the right at pleasure, by fixing a day for their 
removal to these lands. The soundness of this position, in 
technical law, is freely admitted; and does anybody fear a sacri- 
fice of the interests of the New York Indians from the admis- 
sion ? Had such been the policy of this government as to Indian 
claims and Indian title? If physical power and technical law 
were the rules by which these people were to be dealt with, they 
had no rights. We had never recognized in them any other 
estate in lands than that-of simple occupancy, a mere possessory 
title; and if we were to canvass that right by the rules of the 
courts, the Indian might as well abandon his claim. His occu- 
pancy would be too limited, or too questionable, to give him a 
resting place, and might would make right on the side of the 
whites when such rules came to govern the questions. Such, 
however, was not, and was not to be, our Indian policy; and no 
technical action of the President was to forfeit the right of the 
Indians to their Green Bay lands. The treaty, therefore, upon 
this point, required no more support than was given to it by foi*- 
mer compacts of the same character, 

" What, then, was this treaty, in its essential provisions, so far 
as the rights of the United States and of these Indians were con- 
cerned ? The entire instrument was too long to trouble the Sen- 
ate with, while a very short statement would give the points upon 
which the discussion must rest, 

"Article 1 cedes to the United States the lands of the New 
York Indians, at Green Bay, not otherwise disposed of, computed 
at 435,000 acres. 

"Article 2 secures to these Indians a country in the Indian 
territory, west of the Mississippi, equal to 320 acres of laud for 
each soul, the whole computed at 1,824,000 acres. 

"Article 15 stipulates to pay to the Indians, from the treasury 
of the United States, $400,000, ' to aid them in removing to their 
new homes and supporting themselves the first year after their 



932 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

removal ; to encourage and assist them in education, and being 
taught to cultivate their lands ; in erecting mills and other neces- 
sary houses; in purchasing domestic animals and farming utensils, 
and acquiring a knowledge of mechanic arts.' 

" These were the principal provisions of the treaty, in a pro- 
perty sense, as affecting the pecuniary interests of the government 
or the Indians. Some other articles there were stipulating for 
the payment of small sums to some of the smaller bands, but the 
amount in no single case exceeds |5,000, and the aggregate 
amount is but about $20,000. 

"As connected with this branch of the subject, however, are 
two separate treaties: the one between the Seneca band of Indi- 
ans, the pre-emption company and the State of Massachusetts, 
and the other between the Tuscarora band and the same parties. 
The first conveys to the pre-emption company all the remaining 
lands of the Senecas within the State of New York, consisting of 
four reservations, as follows: 

Acres. 

" The Buffalo Creek reservation, containing 49,920 

" The Cattaraugus reservation 21,680 

' ' Tlie Allegany reservation 30,469 

" The Tonawanda reservation 12,800 

"In all 114 



"As the consideration money for the purchase, the pre-emption 
company stipulate to pay to the Seneca Indians the sum of 
$202,000 in money ; and the tenth article of the treaty with the 
United States, now under consideration, stipulates that the 
United States will receive, hold and invest for these Indians 
$100,000 of this money, and will pay them the annual interest 
thereon forever; and that the improvements upon the reserva- 
tions, being the property of individual Indians, shall be appraised, 
and the $102,000 be paid to the owners thereof in just proportions. 

" The treaty with the Tuscarora band cedes to the pre-emption 
company their small reservation of 1,920 acres, called ' the Tusca- 
rora reservation,' or ' Seneca grant,' for which the pre-emption 
company sti^Hilate to pay the sum of $9,600 in money. 

" The title of the respective bands to the lands last mentioned 
was the ordinary Indian title of possession and occupancy, the 



Life and Times of Silas Wrioht. 933 

company, as will hereafter appear, having long since purchased 
the pre-emption right from the State of Massachusetts. 

" By the fourteenth article of the treaty with the United States, 
the Tuscarora band cede to the United States 5,000 acres of land 
which they own in fee, situate in Niagara county, in the State of 
New York, to be held for them in trust, and to be sold at the 
value as appraised and the money to be paid to them, so far as 
the value of the improvements are concerned, and invested for 
their benefit, and the annual interest thereon paid to them for- 
ever, so far as the value of the soil, separate from the improve- 
ments, shall be realized; the expenses of survey, appraisement 
and sale being first deducted. 

" This was a concise view of the pecuniary stipulations of the 
three treaties, and upon them the discussion had hitherto rested, 
and must rest, as he had heard of no complaints from any quarter 
as to the other stipulations with any portion of these Indians. 

"It would now be proper to examine the condition of the ques- 
tion before the Senate, in order that a clear understanding of the 
case presented piay be had. What, then, is the real question 
before the body, and how has it come here ? 

" We find the first printed paper, in the large file upon our 
tables, to be a message from the President of the United States, 
transmitting this treaty to the Senate, with the volume of papers 
which accompany it, and expressing his clear convictions upon 
the following points: 

" 1. That the removal of the Indians is essential to their pros- 
perity and welfare, and even to their preservation as a people. 

" 2, That the true interests of the sections of country where 
they are require that they should be removed. 

"3. That the terms of the treaty are liberal toward the 
Indians in every respect. 

" Yet it is not proclaimed by the President, but returned to 
the Senate for a further expression on its part. And what 
expression is sought? Whether, in its judgment, this liberal 
treaty has been assented to by the Indians, in conformity with 
the rule established by the Senate for giving that assent. This 
is the single point presented, and upon which an expression of 
the Senate is desired. 



934 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" How have doubts ai'isen upon this point ? Certainly from 
the peculiar action of the Senate upon the treaty at some former 
stage of that action, or from the peculiarity of the assent which 
the Indians have in fact given, or from both. An examination 
of the history of the treaty will show where rest the difficulties. 

" The original treaty, which forms the basis of this discussion, 
was concluded between the New York Indians and the United 
States on the 15th day of January, 1838. About the due execu- 
tion of that treaty by the Indians there has not been, and is not, 
any question. It was presented to all the bands, convened in a 
common council, and was assented to by all, to the satisfaction 
of the Senate. 

"That treaty, thus made on the part of these bands, was sub- 
sequently, and during the annual session of the Senate of 1837-38, 
transmitted to this body for its ratification by the President of 
the United States, in the usual form of transacting such business. 
It was referred to the proper committee of the Senate for exami- 
nation and advisement. The committee found many of its pro- 
visions objectionable to them, from being too vague, and present- 
ing too uncertain a responsibility on the part of this government. 
The removal of the Indians, their subsistence for one year, the 
erection of mills, school-houses, blacksmith shops, churches, and 
many other expenditures, were stipulated, without any amount 
stated as the maximum of expenditure to which the treasury of 
the United States might be subjected. The committee, as he 
understood at the time, and now believes, referred these matters 
of ordinary expenditure to the head of the Indian Bureau, for an 
estimate of the amount of money required to meet them, and 
framed their fifteenth article of the amended treaty upon the esti- 
mate returned from that officer; thus giving, for the objects 
enumerated in that article, the full amount of that estimate, but 
limiting the amount which could be called for to the $400,000 
therein stipulated to be paid, that being the amount estimated. 

" There were other articles in the original treaty, stipulating 
for the payment of gratuities to individual Indians by name, 
providing funds for a university, and the like, which the com- 
mittee wholly rejected, without proposing any equivalent. 

" Thus an amended treaty was formed by the Committee on 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 935 

Indian Affairs of the Senate, and reported to the body for its 
acceptance, which met with its unanimous concurrence. It was 
ratified on the 11th of June, 1S38, and returned to the Indians 
for their assent, Avith a special resohition, which has hxid tlie 
foundation for the present controversy. 

"It was proper here to remark that the resohitions of the 
Senate of the llth of June, 1838, were a complete ratification of 
the amended treaty on its part; tliat the instrument, in all its 
parts, was thus made perfect, so far as the constitutional action 
of this body, in the formation of a treaty, was concerned, and 
that the only thing which remained to be done was the p-ivino- 
of the requisite assent, by the several bands of Indians, accord- 
ing to the resolutions for that purpose which the Senate adopted. 
That resolution was made part of the proceedings of ratification 
on the part of the Senate, was, upon its face, to be adopted by a 
vote of two-thirds of the Senators present, and was, therefore, if 
met by the Indians with the assent required, the final close of 
our action on the subject of the treaty in our executive character. 
The resolution was in the following words : 

''' Provided always, and be it furtlier resolved {two-tJiirds of the Senate present 
coneurrinc/), That the treaty shall have no force or effect whatever, as it 
relates to auy of said tribes, nations or bands of New York Indians, nor 
shall it be understood that the Senate have assented to any of the contracts 
connected with it, until the same, with the amendments herein proposed, is 
submitted, and fully and fairly explained, by a commissioner of the United 
States, to each of said tribes or bands, separately assembled in council, and 
they have given their free and voluntary assent thereto ; and if one or more 
of said tribes or bands, when consulted as aforesaid, shall freely assent to 
said treaty as amended, and to their contract connected therewith, it shall 
be binding and obligatory upon those so assenting, although other or others 
of said bauds or tribes may not give their assent, and thereby cease to be 
parties thereto. Provided, farther , That if any portion or part of said Indians 
do not emigrate, the President shall retain a proper proportion of said sum 
of $400,000, and shall also deduct, from the quantity of land allowed west 
of the Mississippi, such number of acres as will leave to each emigrant 330 
acres only.' 

" With its full ratification and this conditional resolution, the 
Senate returned the treaty to the President as amended, for him, 
as the executive of the nation, to carry its orders into effect, but 



936 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

most clearly without anything further on its part to be done to 
make the whole a valid and operative treaty. 

" The President, during the vacation of Congress, caused the 
treaty, as amended by the Senate, to be again submitted to the 
Indians for their assents, according to the resolution of the Senate 
above given. 

"On the 21st of January, 1839, the President, by a message, 
Teturned the amended treaty to the Senate. For what ? For 
ratification again by this body ? No ; but for this body to say 
whether the assents given by the various bands of Indians was in 
conformity with our resolution of the 11th of June, 1838, and 
was sufficient to authorize him to proclaim the treaty. As to all 
the bands, except the Senecas, the President expresses the opinion, 
in his then message, that the assents had been ' entirely satisfac- 
tory.' As to the assent of the Senecas he seems not to have been 
satisfied, and for that reason to have returned the treaty and 
papers to the Senate. 

" The whole matter was then again referred to the Committee 
on Indian Affairs of this body, and underwent before them a 
laborious investigation, including the examination of numerous 
witnesses. The result was an inability, on the part of the coni- 
mittee, then consisting of four members, to come to any conclu- 
sion, or to recommend any specific course of action to the Senate. 

" Under these circumstances, the subject first came up for the 
consideration and action of the body on Saturday, the 2d day 
of March, 1839, at that time universally supposed to be the last 
legislative day of the session. It was immediately apparent, as 
all who were then here will recollect, that no decisive action 
could take place, without protracted debate, as the documents 
were voluminous, the statements complicated and contradictory, 
and the opinions of Senators, as well as of the different members 
of the committee, strongly conflicting. 

" The public appropriation bills, also, with a large share of the 
other legislation of the session, remained in an unfinished state, 
and it was impossible for the Senate to devote its time to a sub- 
ject of this character at that period of a short session. 

" To pass the subject over, therefore, and not permit the treaty 
and the whole negotiation to drop, for want of consideration and 



Life and Tjiies of Silas Wright. 937 

action, the Senate passed its resolution of the 2d of Marcli, 1839. 
That resolution was oftered by his honorable colleague, a friend 
to the treaty, and after a very little conversation and some slight 
verbal modifications, suggested by others and promptly accepted 
by the mover, was adopted, as his present impression was, by 
two-thirds of the Senators present. It was in the following 
words : 

" ' Resolved, That whenever the President of the United States shall be 
satisfied that the assent of the Seneca tribe of Indians has been given to the 
amended treaty of June 11th, 1838, with the New York Indians, according 
to the true intent and meaning of the resolution of the Senate of the 11th 
of June, 1838, the Senate recommend that the President make proclamation 
of said treaty, and carry the same into effect.' 

"With this resolution the treaty was remanded to the Presi- 
dent for the further action of the executive department. Inas- 
much as the President had returned the amended treaty to the 
Senate for an expression of its opinion as to the sufficiency of the 
assent of the Seneca band, and as the resolution above given did 
not express an affirmative opinion upon that point, that officer 
very naturally supposed that further efforts on his part to obtain 
the assent of this band were contemplated. During the vacation 
of 1839, therefore, he sent the Secretary of War, in person, to 
hold a council with this band, and again lay the amended treaty 
before their chiefs in council, for their more formal assents. 

" The council was held on the 13th and 14th days of August, 
1839, and 'talks' were interchanged between the Secretary, the 
agent of the New York Indians, and the chiefs and principal men, 
not of the Seneca band merely, but of several of the other bands. 
These ' talks,' on the part of the Indians, were principally strong 
recriminations between the friends and the opponents of the 
treaty, and resulted in nothing decisive, either in favor of or 
against the measure, as applicable to the Seneca band, or to any 
other portion of the New York Indians. A full report of the 
proceedings of this council is found with the printed documents 
before the Senate ; and is all the evidence of any efforts on the 
part of the executive to obtain the farther assent of any portion 
of the Indians to the treaty, after the passage of the resolution 
of the Senate of the 2d March, 1839. 



938 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

" Under this state of facts, the amended treaty, with a mass 
of dociaments in favor of and against it, was returned to the 
Senate by the President, during our present session, accompanied 
by his message of the fifteenth of January, before referred to. 

" All the papers have been again referred to the Committee on 
Indian Affairs of this body, and, after full consideration, the 
committee unanimously report that the state of facts has not 
been changed, so far as the action of the Senate is concerned, 
since the treaty was last submitted to us ; that the question now 
is, as it was in 183 9, when the amended treaty was before the 
Senate, upon the submission of the President, with his message 
of the twenty-first of January of that year. Have the Seneca band 
of Indians given their assent to this amended treaty, in con- 
formity with the spirit and intent of the Senate's resolution of 
ratification of the 11th of June, 1838 ? 

" This is the simple question for the Senate to decide, and this 
long history shows in what manner, and under what circum- 
stances, it has come before us. 

"Before proceeding to discuss this question, justice to the 
President requires a few words in explanation of his course. It 
has been already more than intimated that his reference of this 
question to the Senate is improper ; that the point was one for 
him to decide, as his action alone is called for to render the 
treaty perfect and operative. Differing with the President, as 
he did, in reference to the sufficiency of the assent of the Senecas, 
within the fair intent and meaning of the resolution of the Senate 
of the 11th of June, 1838, yet his convictions were clear that 
that ofticer had discharged his duty most properly in again 
referring the question of doubt to the decision of the Senate. 
Where was the doubt, and how had it arisen ? Out of the acts 
of the Indians, by way of assent or dissent ? No ; but out of 
what should be considered the true construction of the resolu- 
tion of the Senate, under which that assent was to be made. 
The President tells us he thinks we intended that the chiefs 
should assent ' i7i council,'' and he says, ' no advance toward 
obtaining the assent of the Seneca tribe to the amended treaty, 
IN COUNCIL, was made, nor can the assent of a majority of them, 
in council, be now obtained.'' This language refers expressly 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 939 

to the efforts made by the President, through the Secretary 
of War, after the passage of the resolution of tlie Senate of tlie 
2d of March, 1839; and, while it shows the construction which 
he was inclined to put upon the resolution of ratification of the 
11th of June, 1838, proves also that he supposed the resolution 
of the 2d of March, 1839, contemplated further measures on his 
part to obtain the assent of this band. Still he was not confi- 
dent, as his message abundantly shows, that his construction of 
the resolution of ratification was that which the Senate intended ; 
and hence his reference again of the whole matter to this body, 
that we might put our own construction upon our own act. A 
different course on his part would necessarily have been a final 
rejection of the treaty, inasmuch as there is no pretense that a 
majority of the Seneca chiefs assented ' in council.'' So long as 
there was doubt, therefore, it was his imperative duty to make 
the reference he has made, and to leave it to this body to say 
what it intended, and whether, from all the facts in the case, 
which he has most properly laid before us, the spirit and intent 
of our resolution has been complied with. 

"This brought him to the real question presented for discus- 
sion; and tedious as he had been compelled to be in his manner 
of reaching it, he hoped he had succeeded in so far clearing the 
ground as to render the position in which he now stood perfectly 
perceptible. Had, then, the New York Indians — and especially 
the Seneca band — given their assent to the amended treaty, 
according to the spirit and intent of the resolutions of the Senate 
of the 11th of June, 1838, by which the Senate ratified that treaty 
on its part and tendered it to these Indians for their assent? 
This was the question. If they had, the matter was at an end. 
The contract had received the sanction of both the contracting 
parties, and it was in the power of neither to annul it without the 
assent of the other. If they had not, it was no treaty as to the 
bands not assenting, and nothing which the Senate could do 
would make it valid as to them. The question was one of fact. 
The evidence was all before us and we were the jury by which 
that fact was to be found, and the consequence, whatever should 
be our verdict, would necessarily follow. 

" What, then, was the fact ? The resolution of the Senate con- 



940 Life and Ti3ies of Silas Wright. 

tained two prerequisites to the consummation of the treaty by the 
Indians : 

" 1. That it, with the amendments of the Senate, should be sub- 
mitted and fully and fairly explained, by a commissioner of the 
United States, to each of said tribes or bands separately assem- 
bled in council. 

" 2. That each of the said tribes or bands shall have given 
their free and voluntary assent to the treaty as amended. 

"It is admitted on all hands that the first of these prerequisites 
has been fully and fairly and honestly complied with; that the 
commissioner of the United States has submitted the amended 
treaty to each of the tribes or bands separately assembled in 
council, and has there fully and fairly explained the same to 
them, according to the terms and spirit and intent of our reso- 
lution. Here, therefore, he felt at liberty to dismiss that branch 
of the discussion. 

"It only remains to determine whether the Indians have given 
their free and voluntary assent to the amended treaty. 

"Here, again, the ground is narrowed down to the Seneca 
band, as all admit — the President in his message of 1839, and 
the Committee on Indian Affairs in their rej)orts at the last and 
present sessions of the Senate — that the assent of all the other 
bands has been satisfactorily given. 

"The majority of the committee now rej^ort that the Seneca 
band have not so assented, and their honorable chairman has 
made a most able and forcible argument to sustain that report. 
He did not flatter himself that he could so well deserve the atten- 
tion of the Senate, or that he could discuss the question so clearly 
and forcibly, as he could not pretend to have made himself so 
thoroughly acquainted with the volume of documents to be 
examined. Yet he would try to maintain the opposite side of 
the argument, and to trespass as lightly as possible upon the 
patience and attention which might be extended toward him. 

"To establish the number of chiefs of the Seneca nation 
entitled to be consulted, and authorized to act in making trea- 
ties, was first necessary. It would appear singular, to those 
who had not examined these papers, that this should be a 
question of dispute even among, not the Indians simply, but 



Life and Tuies of Silas Weighs 941 

among their admitted cliiefs; and nothing could more forci- 
bly demonstrate the perishing state of these unfortunate rem- 
nants of the Indian race of the north than this single fact. 
They have lost the number, and are ignorant of the persons 
of those who are entitled to exercise the supreme power of 
their nation. Yet he felt authorized to assume that the real 
number of chiefs, or in any event the highest number which the 
papers would authorize us to assume, was eighty-one. This was 
the number assumed by the President, by the head of the Indian 
Bureau, by the committee, and by the honorable chairman in his 
argument; and this was the number he should assume as the 
proper one to test the execution of the treaty. 

"It was assumed that the assent of a majority of the chiefs 
was requisite to constitute a valid execution of the treaty on the 
part of the nation, and, of course, that the signatures of forty- 
one of the eighty-one chiefs was the least number which could 
constitute an assent. Without admitting that the action of a 
majority of all these eighty-one chiefs was requisite to the for- 
mation of a valid treaty, or even that it was necessary or proper 
to call for the action of a majority of all the chiefs of all grades 
for such a purpose, he should argue the question upon the hypo- 
thesis that the concurrence of a majority of the whole was 
necessary in this case; and he should do so, because he felt entire 
confidence that even under that rule the Senate would be able to 
decide that the assent of the Seneca band to the amended treaty 
had been obtained. 

" To those, however, who, with the honorable chairman, had 
made up their minds that the signatures of this majority of the 
chiefs must have been given in ' council,' and that any assent 
of a chief given elsewhere, however freely and fairly, is to be 
treated as a nullity, he had no argument to make. There was 
no pretense that a majority of the chiefs signed the amended 
treaty 'in council,' and if that was to be held as a prerequisite 
to a valid execution, the assent of the Senecas had not been 
obtained. He did not so read or so construe the resolution of 
the Senate of the 11th of June, 1838. He had before divided 
the resolution according to his understanding of its meaning. 
The amended treaty was to be ' submitted, and fully and fairly 



942 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

explainecl, by a commissioner of the United States, to each of 
said tribes or bands, separately assembled in council.' This, it 
is admitted on all hands, was done with all the bands, and as 
well with the Senecas as the others. Then each tribe or band 
was to give ' their free and voluntary assent thereto,' to render 
the amended treaty valid as to it. 

" Has the Seneca band performed this condition on its part ? 
Have this tribe, through a majority of their chiefs, acting in or 
out of council, ' given their free and voluntary assent ' to the 
amended treaty ? 

" He was happy to observe, from the argument of the honor- 
able chairman, that there would be no substantial difference 
between them as to the facts connected with the assents of the 
Seneca chiefs, in the manner in which those assents had been 
given, and that the differences were as to the conclusions to be 
drawn from admitted facts, and as to the fairness, good faith 
and validity of the conceded acts of the chiefs. 

" This would enable him to state the facts very concisely, and 
relieve him from the labor of reading tedious extracts from the 
reports of the commissioner, and the other papers. 

" It is, then, conceded that sixteen of the chiefs signed the 
amended treaty ' in council.' 

" The commissioner states that subsequently thirteen other 
chiefs affixed their signatures at his room, in the presence of 
Gen. H. A. S. Dearborn, the agent appointed by the State of 
Massachusetts to attend the negotiations with the Seneca 
and Tuscarora Indians, four of which thirteen signatures were 
affixed by attorneys of the chiefs duly appointed and empowered 
to perform the act, and the remaining nine by the chiefs in per- 
son. The commissioner adds that the sio-natures of two other 
chiefs, who were too unwell to attend in council, were taken at 
the rooms of the chiefs, also in the presence of the Massachusetts 
agent ; that all the fifteen chiefs who thus signed out of council, 
were persons who well understood the subject, and that all the 
signatures 'were freely and voluntarily given;' that the four who 
signed by attorney were well known as chiefs friendly to emigra- 
tion — were persons who signed the original treaty ; that three 
of the powers of attorney were properly acknowledged before a 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 943 

judge of the county, and the fourtli executed in his own presence, 
before tlie amended treaty was submitted for signatures in covm- 
cil ; and that he had no doubt that all the powers were fairly 
obtained. 

"Here is shown the assent of thirty-one of the eighty-one 
chiefs given, sixteen in and fifteen out of council ; and these 
were all the signatures obtained by the commissioner from chiefs 
of the Senecas during his first visit to obtain the assent of the 
several bands to the amended treaty. 

"The commissioner states, in his report to the head of the 
Indian Bureau, that he directed the local Indian agent to keep as 
accurate an account as was possible of the number of chiefs 
attending in council from day to day, and also of the entire num- 
ber of chiefs who appeared in council at any time during the 
negotiations, inasmuch as chiefs and warriors attended in council 
together, and sat together, as did also individuals of the other 
bauds, so that it was not in his power to tell which were Seneca 
chiefs, any farther than the prosecution of his duties made them 
known to him — that the agent reported to him that not moi-e 
than sixty-one chiefs of the Senecas were present in council at 
any one time; and he then raises the question for the decision of 
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Avhether the thirty-one 
assents obtained, being a majority of sixty-one, the whole num- 
ber of chiefs present in council at any one time, the amended 
treaty might not be considered as sufficiently assented to on the 
part of the Senecas. Upon this ground only did the commis- 
sioner intimate that the assent of this band could be considered 
as sufficiently given. 

" The next fact, which seems to be material here, is given by 
the commissioner in the following words: 

" 'Since I commeHced this report, I have received, by mail, the written 
assent of live persons known by me to be recognized by tlie nation as chiefs. 
They all signed the treaty last winter. These appear to have been proved 
and acknowledged before Hezekiah Salisbury, a commissioner of deeds in 
the county of Erie, in the State of New York. He is certified to be duly 
commissioned as such officer by the clerk of the county. The persons who 
have subscribed their names as witnesses are known to me to be respectable. 
I have no doubt these assents were fairly given. Added to those taken in 
my presence, they make thirty-six in all, and are probably u majority of the 



944 Life and Times of- Silas Weight. 

whole number who attended during the council. I observe in each of these 
papers is incorporated a power to you and to me to add their respective 
names to the assent which I now hand you. Whether these powers should 
be exercised or not, you can best judge.' 

" This is an extract from the report of the commissioner to the 
head of the Indian Bureau, made at Washington under date of 
the 25th of October, 1838; and it presents the further question, 
whether if the thirty-one signatures, being a majority of the 
number of chiefs who attended council at any one time, should 
not be considered a sufficient assent, the thirty-six, being a majo- 
rity of the whole number who appeared in council at any time, 
would not be so considered ? 

"He must be permitted here to remark that his friend, the 
honorable chairman, criticised these suggestions of the commis- 
sioner with what appeai-ed to him to be undue severity, when he 
said that the commissioner appeared to have returned to Wash- 
ington for the grave purpose of submitting to the War department 
the question whether thirty-one, or thirty-six, were a majority of 
eighty-one. The suggestions were such as he had stated, and 
they seemed to have been very properly and very sensibly made. 
If a vote had been taken in council, and a majority of the chiefs 
present had approved of the amended treaty, and then signed it, 
the very ground upon which the honorable chairman rests his 
argument would have made that a valid and satisfactory assent 
' in council.' Was there, then, anything very absurd or censur- 
able in the inquiry of the commissioner, whether that same assent, 
given partly in council and partly out of it, was satisfactory; and 
if not, whether the assent of a majority of all the chiefs who 
at any time appeared in the council would be sufficient? He 
thought not. 

" Upon the facts here presented, the Commissioner of Indian 
AiFairs made his report to the Secretary of War, under date of 
the 29th of October, 1838, strongly questioning the sufficiency of 
the assent, as to the Seneca band, and, under date of the thirtieth 
of the same month, he writes to the commissioner as follows : 

" ' Your report and the treaty with the New York Indians, assented to as 
amended in the Senate of the United States, have been submitted to the 
Secretary of War. He is of opinion that the consent of a majority of all 



Life and Timhs of Hu.as Wrkuit. 945 

the Seneca chiefs must be obtained, but that, as you have heretofore met the 
requirement of the Senate by full explaualiou to them in couucil, you may 
proceed to the Seneca reservation, and there obtain the assent of such Indians 
as have not heretofore given it.' 

" Thus instructed, the commissioner repaired again to the 
Seneca reservation to perform the additional duties assigned to 
him. Under date of the 11th January, 1839, at Washington, he 
thus reports his doings to the head of the Indian Bureau. 

" ' On the receipt of those instmctions I repaired to Buffalo, New York, 
for the purpose of carrying them into effect. On my arrival there, I was 
joined by Gen. H. A. S. Dearborn, the superintendent appoiutcd by the 
Governor of Massachusetts, who continued with me until the close of my 
visit there. He was present and witnessed every signature to the assent, 
except one, which was taken while he was confined to his room by indispo- 
sition. Soon after my arrival at Buffalo, I directed the United States sub- 
agent, residing there, to give public notice to the Seneca chiefs that I was 
present and authorized to receive the signatures of such of their chiefs as 
desired to give them, and that the superintendent from Massachusetts was 
also present to discharge the duty assigned him by the authorities of his 
State. After this notice, ten additional names were received to the Seneca assent, 
malcing in all forty-one. Seven of this ten had previously signed separate 
assents, containing powers of attorney to execute such further papers as 
might be necessary to give validity to their assents. These papers were all 
proved and acknowledged according to the usual forms under the laws of 
New York. Five of this number personally came before me and signed the 
assent attached to the treaty. The other two signed by attorney. The 
reasons why they did not appear and sign in person are stated in two affida- 
vits which I hand you, marked No. 1 and No. 2. From the character of 
the affidavits, and information verbally communicated to me by several 
respectable chiefs, I have no doubt that these affidavits are strictly true.' 

" This completed the signatures, in fact, of forty-one out of 
the eighty one chiefs of this band, all but two of whom signed 
in person; and the two who signed by attorney, account for their 
doing so as is seen above. In addition to these, one chief, James 
Shongo, signed his assent to a printed copy of the amended treaty 
before the engrossed copy was laid before the council for signa- 
tures, but did not repeat it to the written copy. Another chief, 
Kenjuquide, gave his assent by attorney, after the amended treaty 
was returned to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, as is seen by 
the note to his report to the Secretary of War of the 15th of 

60 



946 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

January, 1839. Thus, in the manner stated, the assents of forty- 
three of the eighty-one Seneca chiefs were obtained. 

" Still, it is contended that the amended treaty has not been 
assented to on the part of this band, and is no treaty as to them, 
and upon what grounds ? 

^'■Flrst. That the assents should have been given ' in council,' 
and that those not so given ai*e not to be regarded. 

"He had already given his interpretation of the resolution of 
ratitication of the Senate of the lltli of June, 1838, and had but 
two other remarks to add upon this point. 

" He would refer the Senate to page 285 of the printed docu- 
ments to show, upon the authority of two members of the body, 
that it was not the sense of the Senate itself, at the time of the 
passage of the resolution of the 2d of March, 1839, that these 
signatures must be given ' iu council,' as it appeared from the 
communications of these two Senators that an amendment to 
that effect was moved to that resolution, proposing to add 
the words ' in open council,'' and that upon a vote the amend- 
ment was not adopted. He was aware that this proceeding 
was had in committee, that the vote was taken by a count, 
and not by ayes and noes, and that nothing in relation to it 
appeared upon the journal. He was also informed that the 
recollections of all the Senators who were present did not agree 
as to the manner in which the amendment was disposed of, 
some believing that it was withdrawn without a vote. He could 
merely say that his recollection of the offer of such an amend- 
ment was very confident, and his impressions as to the disposi- 
tion of it agreed with the printed statements, made by the two 
honorable Senators, to which he had referred. 

" His other remark was, that it was competent for the Senate, 
if it believed that the assent of a majority of the Seneca chiefs 
had been fairly, freely and properly given, to declare such assent 
satisfactory, though not given in the form and manner directed 
or intended by its resolution of ratitication of the lltli of June, 
1838. It was upon this broad ground that he principally rested 
his argument, and his support of the treaty as to the Seneca 
band. Without discussing the question whether it was the 
intention of the Senate that the assents should be given 'in 



Life and Times of Silas Wuigiit. 947 

council,' or whether the language of its resolution required that 
construction, all must admit that but one ol)ject was to be accom- 
plished, viz., the 'free and voluntary assent' of each separate 
tribe or band to the amended treaty. Now, if the Senate pointed 
out one particular place or manner for expressing those assents, 
and the Indians chose another place or manner for making the 
same expression, will it be contended that the treaty should fall 
rather than that the forms prescribed by the Senate should not 
be complied with, while the substance of their requisition had 
been met by the 'free and voluntary assent' of a majority of the 
chiefs ? This was his view of the force of the objection that the 
assents had not been given ' in council.' To him it was imma- 
terial whether the Senate intended that the assents should be 
given in council or not, as it was whether they loere given in 
council or out of it. The only material inquiry to him was, had 
the majority of the chiefs in fact given their 'free and voluntary 
assent ' to the amended treaty ? This brought him to the next 
ground upon which the sufficiency of the assents was resisted. 

^'■Second. It is contended that the assents of the chiefs, who 
have given their assents in the manner before related, have not 
been 'free and voluntary,' but have been obtained by bribery, 
fraud and improper practices. 

" The charges of bribery ai*e not preferred against the commis- 
sioner or any of the agents of the United States, but against the 
company which had purchased the pre-emption right to the Seneca 
lands from the State of Massachusetts, and against the agents of 
that company. It was no part of his business to defend this com- 
pany or their agents against these or any other charges, or to 
justify the practices of the one or the other, but simply to see 
how far those practices, whatever they may have been, should 
be held to invalidate the execution of this treaty on the part of 
the Seneca chiefs. 

"The direct and specific charges of bribery are based upon 
eight several contracts made between an agent of the pre-emp- 
tion company and that number of the Seneca chiefs, all of which 
contracts were in writing, signed and sealed by the respective 
parties and attested by one or more witnesses. The honorable 
chairman of the committee, in the course of his argument, caused 



948 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

two of these contracts to be read to the Senate, and to save a 
repetition he would remark upon them, as samples of the whole. 

"The first was with JuhnSnow, a Seneca chief, residing on the 
Buffalo Creek reservation. This contract recites that the pre-emp- 
tion company are desirous to promote the policy of the United States 
in the removal of the Indians west of the Mississippi, and also to 
extinguish the title to their lands in the State of New York; that, 
in furtherance of these objects, the company had authorized nego- 
tiations to be opened with the Indians, and offers of money to be 
made to them as a permanent fund for the nation, and to compen- 
sate them for their improvements, and also ' deemed it advisable 
and necessary to employ the aid, co-operation and services of cer- 
tain individuals who are able to influence the said Indians to 
accept of the offers so to be made to them ; ' that Heman B. Pot- 
ter, the first party in the contract, was authorized to act f^r the 
pre-emption company, and to contract Avith individuals for their 
aid and influence, and that Snow, the second party to the con- 
tract, had agreed to contribute his influence and services, and, in 
case of the extinguishment of the Indian title by the company, to 
sell to them his improvements. 

" The parties then go on to contract, First. That Snow shall 
' use his best endeavors and exertions ' to induce the Indians to 
sell their lands and remove west, and that he shall co-operate 
with, and on all occasions aid the company and their agents ' in 
talks and negotiations with the chiefs and other influential men of 
the said tribe, and in the active application of his whole influence 
at councils and confidential interviews, for the purpose of effecting 
a treaty between the said tribe and the said proprietors, for the 
extinguishment of the Indian title to the said reserved lands.' 
Second. That Snow shall and does convey to the company his 
buildings and improvements upon the Indian reservations, and 
not, in the mean time, to lease or in any other manner dispose of 
the same. Third. Potter, as the agent of the company, agrees 
to pay to Snow the sum of $2,000 within three months after notice 
of the ratification of a valid treaty extinguishing the Indian title 
to the reservations, with these conditions: 

" 1. That if the treaty shall contain provisions to pay indi- 
vidual Indians for their improvements, Snow shall receive, toward 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 949 

the $2,000 agreed to be paid to liini, the sum he may be entitled 
to receive under the treaty for improvements, and the balance 
only, if any, shall be paid by the company within the time limited, 
or as soon thereafter as it can be ascertained. 

" 2. That if, by the provisions of the treaty, Snow shall be 
entitled to receive more than $2,000 for imi)rovements, the coiri- 
pany shall be discharged from the payment of any part of the 
$2,000, and Snow shall take all that is due to him under the treaty. 

" 3. That Snow shall be entitled to a life lease, at a nominal rent, 
of a lot of land actually occupied by him, and called the ' Whipple 
Farm,' the lease to be executed by the company as soon as the 
lands can be surveyed after the treaty, and to have reference to 
the survey. 

" This is the substance of this contract; and, were all the others 
like it, their character and objects would admit of a more satis- 
factory explanation. His acquaintance with the Indians of New 
York enabled him to appreciate this contract. These Indians 
were confined within very narrow reservations, and it had long- 
been a practice with them to lease portions of their lands to the 
whites for cultivation and improvement. The improvements 
made by themselves or their lessees were held to be the private 
and individual property of the Indian, whose right of occupancy 
to the land in question was admitted by the band. Hence, as a 
necessary consequence, when it was proposed to make a sale of 
lands, the first object, to those who owned improvements upon 
the tract proposed to be conveyed, was to secure the value of 
their improvements, so that they should not, with the value of 
the soil, pass into the common national fund. This contract 
showed most clearly to his mind that this was the great induce- 
ment with Snow to enter into it. By the contract the company 
guarantees to him |2,000 for his improvements, satisfied, no 
doubt, that the |102,000, to be paid by them for the improvements 
of individual Indians, would give to Snow that sura. Indeed, the 
contract might be suspected of intentional fraud upon the rights 
of Snow, as a claimant to improvements, were it not that, in case 
his improvements shall entitle him to a greater sum than the 
$2,000 stipulated to be paid, he is to have the surplus, and the 
company are to pay nothing. 



950 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

The other contracts, however, or certainly some of them, are 
for the payment of money, without any reference to the title of 
the chief to improvements, and in this sense he did not justify or 
defend them. They were not, in his opinion, defensible, either 
in principle or policy. He did not entertain a doubt that these 
very contracts had done more, much more, to prevent a cordial 
execution of this treaty than to promote it. The knowledge, on 
the part of the chiefs not contracted with, that others were 
deriving money for their influence in favor of the treaty which 
was not offered to them, was eminently calculated to turn their 
minds against it, and thus to engender an opposition much more 
jDOwerful than the influence purchased would be able to overcome. 
That such had been the practical fact in this case he found no 
reason to doubt, while the opposition manifested gave the 
strongest ground for the presumption that it had this stimulus. 

" It was but just, however, to say that, as gratuities to Indian 
chiefs, in anticipation of a treaty, these proceedings were not 
new in substance to these or any other Indians. Many of the 
present opposing chiefs of the Seneca band were now, and long 
had been, the recipients of annviities from this very company, 
given as gratuities upon the execution of former treaties. He 
could not say that their opposition now proceeded from the 
absence of similar offers to them to become the friends of the 
present treaty. It was fair, however, to assume that their oppo- 
sition could not be founded upon the vicious principle of giving 
gratuities to chiefs at the time of making a treaty, as they had 
manifested no disposition to surrender, either to their nation 
or to the pre-emption company, their personal claims of that 
character. 

" It is said that these contracts were secret, and therefore 
fraudulent and mischievous. He believed they were novel in 
their character, and he did not doubt that the honorable chair- 
man was right in saying that a parallel case had never been 
exhibited to the Senate ; but he could not concede that the 
novelty consisted in the secrecy of the transactions. So far fi-om 
it, he apprehended that the singularity here consisted in the open 
publicity of the contracts, the execution of formal deeds under 
seal, and attested by witnesses. Was it the custom of men who 



Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 951 

deliberately undertake to practice bribery to do it in this raaiiiuT ? 
Did they usually make a deed in writing, and call Avituesses to it? 
execution ? He supposed not; and it seemed to him that these facts 
should rather be considered evidences of a mistaken consciousness 
of the pursuit of a legitimate and honest object, than of a dis- 
position to practice secret bribery. Look for the paper evidence 
of the gratuities which have been given upon the execution of 
former treaties with this band of Indians. Look for the paper 
evidences of claim to the annuities which are yet paid, and some 
of which are not only for the life of the chief, but go to his 
heirs. Go to those treaties : and shall we find them ? No, sir; 
no. Shall we find deeds minutely drawn and formally witnessed? 
He had heard of no such papers ; and yet the annuities existed 
and were regularly paid. 

"He must not be understood as justifying or defending these 
contracts. He did not do either; but he could not see that their 
turpitude was to be sought for in their secrecy. 

" He could have but one object in referring to them, and that 
was to determine whether they should be held to vitiate the 
assent in fact given by the Seneca chiefs to the amended treaty 
now- before the Senate. That point would be made more clear 
by a brief reference to the chronological order of the trans- 
actions. 

" The first of the eight contracts bears date on the 29th of July, 
ISSY, and the last of them on the sixteenth of September of the 
same year. The original treaty was concluded at Buffalo Creek 
on the 15th day of January, 1838, four months after the execu- 
tion of the last of these contracts. That original treaty Avas laid 
before the Senate by the President on the 13th day of April, 
1838, and the amended treaty, now under consideration, was 
substituted for it on the eleventh day of June after, and, as 
amended, was, by the resolution of this body, of w^hich so much 
has been said, directed to be submitted to the Indians for their 
' free and voluntary assent.' 

" The contracts to bribe, therefore, if such these contracts are 
to be considered, were consummated four months before the 
makino- of the oris-inal treaty with the Indians; which was 
formed after full negotiations with them, and the ratification of 



952 Life and Thies of Silas Wright. 

which by them, if it ever was a question with the Senate, cannot 
certainly be so now, after this body has acted upon it as a 
treaty, has amended it, has ratified it on its part as amended, 
and has returned it to the Indians for their assent in its amended 
state. No allegation was found in the papers, or had reached 
him from any quarter, of any attempts on the i^art of the 
pre-emption company or its agents, or of any one else, to make 
contracts of this sort as an inducement to the assent of the 
Indians to the amended treaty. Indeed, he was not now aware 
that charges of bribery of any sort had been preferred in relation 
to the assents to the amended treaty; although the charges of 
that character relating to the formation of the original treaty 
had, so far as he recollected, been principally embodied and 
brought forward since the amended treaty had been submitted 
and assented to in the manner before related. ** 

" It was fair to say that all these contracts depended upon the 
final ratification and confirmation of the treaty by the United 
States, and that, therefore, the interest created under them in 
favor of the chiefs who were parties to them might have con- 
tinued to influence their conduct in relation to the assents to the 
amended treaty; but, to his mind, this was giving to the charges 
of fraud and secrecy a meliorated influence and greatly mitigated 
force. The contracts were completed in September, 1837. The 
amended treaty was submitted for assent in the fall of 1838, and 
again in the summer of 1839; and if the convictions upon the 
minds of these chiefs of the beneficial effects of the treaty to 
themselves and their nation, existing in the fall of 1837, whether 
produced by the contracts or otherwise, remained and continued 
to govern their voices and acts in 1839, two years after; and after 
the existence of the contracts had become known, if a suflicient 
number of their associate chiefs were willing to unite with them 
in assenting to the amended treaty to form a majority of all the 
chiefs of the tribe, the conclusion can but be evident that strong 
and good reasons for the ratification of the treaty on the part of 
the Indians, independent of these contracts, must have existed 
and had their influence upon the minds and feelings and action 
of that majority. 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 953 

"Were, then, the assents of this majority of the chiefs fairly 
and freely and voluntarily given ? 

" He had remarked at the outset, and had received universal 
assent to the proposition, that he should commence the discussion 
with the assumption that the commissioner on the part of the United 
States who negotiated this treaty stood unimpeached and unim- 
peachable, and that all his statements of fact were to be fully 
credited. He was not about to draw heavily upon his testimony 
in relation to this point, but a single short paragraph from his 
last report became necessary to corroborate the evidence of the 
disinterested witness he was about to call upon the stand. The 
commissioner says: 

" ' In every iustauce where a signature was received, either Gen. Dearborn 
or I distinctly inquired of the person offering to sign whether he fully under- 
stood the subject, and whether he freely and voluntarily signed tlie assent. 
In each case a distinct affirmative answer was given.' 

" He now turned to the statements of Gen. H. A. S. Dearborn, 
the agent appointed, on the part of the State of Massachusetts, 
for the single and only purpose of seeing that the interests and 
rights of the Indians w^ere protected in every part of the negotia- 
tion. He had made the preliminary remark that this was a dis- 
interested witness, and one whose character and fairness had 
been indorsed as well by the opponents as the friends of the 
ti-eaty. Upon the point now under discussion, therefore, he 
should rely wholly upon his testimony, and he should do it with 
the most perfect confidence that none of his statements would be 
even doubted. 

"Before proceeding to quote his remarks, he would, to prevent 
confusion and misunderstanding, remind the Senate that this 
gentleman did not represent his State at the making of the origi- 
nal treaty. A citizen of Buffalo, in the State of New York, of 
high standing, had the honor of being deputed to represent the 
State upon that occasion. Complaints having been made con- 
nected with that negotiation, as had been before abundantly seen, 
when the amended treaty was to be submitted to the Indians, 
the Governor of that Commonwealth, with a just regard to his 
own elevated standing, to the character and responsibilities of 
his State, and to the rights and interests of these dependent red 



954 Life and Times of Silas Wrioht. 

men, appointed Gen, Dearborn, the Adjutant-General of the 
State, to represent it upon the occasion. It was from the official 
reports of that officer that he should make his quotations; and 
he would detain the Senate by such only as were pertinent to 
the question whether the assents of the Seneca chiefs to the 
amended treaty were fairly, freely and voluntarily given. 

" In his report to the Governor of Massachusetts, under date 
of October, 1838, at Lewiston, New York, after the thirty-one 
assents had been obtained, he says : 

" ' lu previous conversations, I have represented the deplorable condition 
of the Seneca Indians, and the reasons why I have come to the conclusion 
that the only chance for tlieir reformation and continued existence as a dis- 
tinct people is an immediate emigration to tlie mild climate and excellent 
tract of land offered them by the national government; and I am perfectly 
satisfied, were it not for the unremitted and disingenuous Exertions of a 
certain number of white men, who are actuated by their private interests, to 
induce the chiefs not to assent to the treaty, it would immediately have been 
approved by an immense majority. 

" 'Not an objection or complaint has been made, by a smgle Indian, 
during the whole progress of the council, as to the price obtained for their 
right of possession ; and I have not seen an individual, other than the per- 
sons above named, who does not think the offer of the government a most 
generou3 and favorable one for the Indians; and who does not concur in the 
opinion that it is not only for their individual and national interests to 
remove, but that their fate will inevitably be disastroiis — • that they will be 
overwhelmed with poverty and misery, and soon become extinct, from their 
idle, intemperate and other vicious habits, if they do not abandon their 
present position. 

" ' The same liberal terms wJiieh have been offered to these Tndidns, if extended 
to any county in New England, would nearly depojmlate it in six montJts. 

" 'The conduct of the Hon. Ransom H. Gillet, the commissioner of the 
United States, during the whole session of the council, has been such as to 
merit the confidence which had been reposed in him by the general govern- 
ment, and to meet my entire approbation, from tlie unwearied pains he has 
taken to fully, fairly and clearly explain tlie provisions of the treaty, and present 
the character of the soil and climate, and the advantages which the Indians 
would derive from accepting the territory which is offered them beyond the 
Mississippi. He appeared to be solely actuated by an earnest desire to 
advance their interests, and induce them to comprehend the beneficent 
objects of the government in making such a munificent provision for the 
advancement of their present and future comfort, independence, happiness 
and prosperity.' 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 955 

" This is the testimony of Geii. Dearborn, as to the first effort 
to obtain the assent of the Senecas to the amended treaty. 

" In his report to the Governor, after his second visit, wlien 
the ten additional assents were obtained, imder date of the 2d of 
Jannary, 1839, he says: 

" ' I invariably asked each of the chiefs, in the presence of all the persons 
present, whether they were perfectly satisfied with tlie treaty and the con- 
tract for the sale of their right of possession to the lands on which they 
resided, and willingly and freely came forward to sign the treaty, and they 
all answered in the affirmative; and I am full)' of the opinion that they have 
done so from an anxious desire to avail themselves of the privilege of remov- 
ing into the Indian territory, west of the State of ]\Iissouri, on the liberal 
terms offered them by the government of the United States, and from tlie 
conviction that the condition of the nation would become annually more 
deplorable, so long as they remained on their present reservations, wliere 
there was no hope of amendation in morals or the habits of industry. I 
sincerely believe that nearly all the other chiefs would have cheerfully given 
their assent, were it not for the conduct of certain white men, who are inte- 
rested in the continuance of the tribe on their several reservations of Alle- 
gany river, Cattaraugus, Buffalo and Tonawanda creeks, and the danger 
they apprehended from the party of a few chiefs, who, from ambitious 
motives and political consequence, are adverse to a change of residence, 
having threatened with fatal consequences such as should give their assent, 
as stated in my former report, and illustrated in the deposition of John 
Jamison, marked F and G.' 

" He wonld not take the trouble to make firrther extracts upon 
this point. He had sliown that a majority of the Seneca chiefs 
had, in fact, assented to the amended treaty, not in council, but 
with a full knowledge of the instrument, and a perfect under- 
standing of the consequences of their acts; and here was the 
concurring testimony of two persons, whose duty it was to know 
the facts, and who could have no possible interest in misrepre- 
senting them, proving that those assents were fairly, freely and 
voluntarily given. 

" From this state of facts, it would seem to him to follow, as a 
compulsory duty, that the Senate shottld declare these assents 
satisfactory; but if this was too strong a position to occupy, and 
there was yet discretion left to the body, it did appear to him 
impossible that he should be mistaken in assuming that he had 
shown enough to render it fully competent, within the sound 



956 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

discretion of the members, to make that declaration, in case it 
should appear that such a result would be greatly beneficial to 
the Indians, to the whites among whom they were now located, 
and not injurious to the interests of the United States. 

" There was one other view of the matter, however, which he 
would suggest, before he proceeded to the consideration of the 
pecuniary interests involved in the controvei'sy. 

"Hitherto he had argued the question of the execution of this 
treaty upon the admission that the assent of a majority of all the 
Seneca chiefs, of every grade, was necessary to its validity. This 
was an admission which he did not make except for the sake of 
the argument, because it was a position in the soundness of which 
he did not believe. So far as his acquaintance expended, it was 
a new principle connected with the making of Indian treaties, by 
this or the State governments; and he believed, also, that it was 
new to the laws and customs of the Indians themselves. 

"He would call the attention of the Senate to two short 
extracts from the report of Gen. Dearborn of the 2d of January, 
1839, which would enable him to express his opinion upon this 
point in an intelligible manner. The first extract is as follows: 

" 'There are eight claus or families in each of the tribes of the Six 
Nations, which are designated by the names of Beaver, Turtle, Wolf, Bear, 
Snipe, Deer, Hawk and White Crane or Heron. It is expressly prohibited 
by a law of the tribes for persons of the same clan to intermarry^ and it is 
considered as immoral and irreligious as would be a union within the for- 
bidden limits of consanguinity among the Jews and Christians; and I have 
been assured that an instance of such a matrimonial connection, as would 
be considered by the humblest Indian a wicked and monstrous indecency, 
has never been known.' ' 

"The second is as follows: 

' ' ' There are eight great sachems of the tribe in the Seneca nation of 
Indians, who are also chiefs. It is the highest title and rank, and the office 
is hereditary, like that of the other chiefs. The present sachems are Little 
Johnson, Daniel Two Guns, Captain Pollard, James Stevenson and George 
Liusley of the Buffalo Creek band; Captain Strong and Blue Eyes of the 
Cattaraugus reservation, and Jemmy John of Tonawanda, six of wlioni have 
«igned the treaty. Half of them are Christians and the others Pagans.' 

"Now, if the agent had been more particular, he would 
undoubtedly have told us that, of these eight sachems or princi- 



Life and Times of jSiijAS Wrkiiit. 957 

pal chiefs, one belonged to each of the eiglit families or clans of 
which he had before spoken, and the symbolical names of each of 
which he had given. He would have learned that they were the 
great fathers of the nation, the civil chiefs upon whom the trans- 
action of the business of the nation is devolved; and he, Mr. W., 
did not doubt that, had this treaty been negotiated with the State 
of New York, the signatures of a majority of these sachems would 
have been held sufficient to have constituted it a valid treaty, and 
that any other signatures of chiefs of a lower grade would have 
been considered a mere matter of personal gratitication and not 
of essential substance. He had, therefore, no doubt upon his 
own mind that the concurrence of six of these sachems in this 
amended treaty was of itself a valid execution of it, according to 
the laws and customs of the Seneca nation. 

" Still, he had argued the question upon the other hypothesis, 
because an examination of the papers had satisfied him that a 
majority of all the chiefs of all grades had given an assent 
which the Senate must consider satisfactory. 

"He would now consider, as briefly as he might, the pecuniary 
interests of the various parties to this treaty; and, 

'■'■First. The interests of the State of Massachusetts. 

" According to his understanding in the matter, tliat State had 
now no pecuniary interest whatever in these questions. The 
charters granted by the Crown of Great Britain to the colonies 
of Massachusetts and New York conflicted as to boundaries, and 
both colonies claimed the territory west of a meridian line pass- 
ing through or near the Seneca lake, and Avithin the present limits 
of the State of New York. By an amicable adjustment between 
the two States, in the year 1786, Massachusetts released to New 
York the sovereignty and governmental control over the terri- 
tory, and New York surrendered to Massachusetts the right of 
soil, subject to the Indian title, and the right to extinguish the 
Indian title in her own way. Not many years after this period 
Massachusetts sold to private individuals her pre-emption right 
to the whole country, reserving that power of guardianship 
over the Indians which the old States have ever exercised 
within their limits, and which the United States has exercised 
without the limits of the States, and within those limits where 



958 Life and Times oi Silas Wright. 

the right of pre-emption from the Indians belonged to this 
government. In this way, and for this reason, it is that Mas- 
sachusetts has been represented in all the transactions with the 
Seneca and Tuscarora Indians in relation to this treaty, the reser- 
vations of these lands being within the limits of her original 
right of pre-emption; but since the sale from her to individuals, 
nnder whom the present pre-emption company hold, he did not 
understand that the State had any other interest than the duty 
remaining upon her, as a government, to see that the rights of 
the Indians were fairly and faithfully protected. 

" Second. The interests of the pre-emption company. 

" The interests of this company would be seen from what had 
been said in relation to the connection of the Stat^of Massachu- 
setts with this matter. As purchasers from that State, they hold 
the exclusive right to extinguish the Indian title, whenever the 
Indians shall be induced to surrender the possession and occu- 
pancy of the lands. By virtue of that right, they have already 
extinguished the Indian title to an extensive and fertile country, 
and the present treaty proposes to complete the operation by 
the extinguishment of that title to all which remains, being 
about 116,000 acres. 

" The interests of this company are direct and palpable. The 
purchase from Massachusetts was made in 1796 or 1797, and, so 
far as these lands are concerned, the purchase-money paid to that 
State has been unproductive capital to the company from that 
day to the present time. It is abundantly shown, too, that the 
present reservations are constantly becoming less valuable, by 
being stripped of their timber, which, in their natural state, con- 
stituted the chief value of two or three of them. This considera- 
tion renders it a matter of direct interest to the company to 
extinguish the Indian title, and obtain the actual possession at 
the earliest practicable day. 

" As much had been said of the vast speculation which this 
company would make by the ratification of this treaty, he had 
taken some pains to form an opinion upon that point, and had 
therefore endeavored to ascertain what had been paid to the 
State of Massachusetts for the right to extinguish the Indian 
title. As nearly as he could learn from the documents which 



Life and Times of Silas Wuhiut. 959 

had come within his reach, ubout £800,000, New Engl.aiid cur- 
rency, equal to about $1,200,000, had been paid for the whole 
purchase, and that somewhere from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 acres 
of land were covered by the purchase. He therefore concluded 
that the price paid to Massachusetts for the rig-lit of pre-emption 
from the Indians, say in 1797, must liave been somewhere from 
twenty-five to thirty cents per acre. He had not taken the pains 
to make a calculation to see what, at a fair rate of investment, 
that price would bring the cost of the land to at this period, but, 
when added to the $212,000, or thereabouts, now to be paid, and 
the gratuities which have been and are to be given in case the 
treaty be finally ratified, he had satisfied himself that the specu- 
lation of the comp)any would be much less than had l)een 
imagined, and that a prudent man, who had the money, would 
pause before he would take the property off their iiands at prin- 
cipal, interest and costs. 

" Still, the interests of this company were nothing to him. It 
was not their advantage which he felt called upon to consult, or 
which induced him to urge the ratification of the treaty. As 
constituents of his, as he believed most of them were, and as 
highly respectable individuals, so far as he knew them, he would, 
as far as lay in his power, do them justice upon this as upon all 
occasions; but he would not urge this treaty upon the Senate, to 
the detriment of the Indians, because this company might be 
benefited by its ratification, as he certainly would not vote for 
its rejection, to the detriment of the Indians, for fear this com- 
pany might profit from its operation. 

" Third. The interests of the State of New York and her citizens. 

" The State, as such, had no interest in this question, separate 
from the interests of the citizens to be atiected by the continu- 
ance or removal of the Indians. The extent of these interests 
would be best shown by brief statistical statements. 

" The Senecas are scattered through the six counties of Alle- 
gany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee and Orleans. 
This band of Indians, together with the Onondagas and Cayugas, 
who reside with them upon their reservations, number 2,623 souls, 
and the white population of the counties in which they are, as 
shown by the State census of 1835, was 244,144 souls. 



960 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" The Onondagas, at Onondaga, number 300 soiils, and are in 
the county of their name, which had at the same period a white 
population of 60,908 souls. 

"The Oneidas, at Oneida, are 620 souls, and are in the county 
of their name, with a white population of 77,518 souls. 

"The American party of the St. Regis number 350 souls, and 
are in the counties of St. Lawrence and Franklin, with a white 
population of 54,548 souls. 

"The Tiiscaroras number 273 souls, and are in the county of 
Niagara, which has a white population of 24,490 souls. 

"The Stockbridges, Munsees and Brothertowns, so far as they 
remain in New York, are scattered among the other bands, and 
number, together, 709 souls. 

" Thus it will be seen that all these bands and remnants of tribes 
of Indians are scattered through eleven counties of the State; 
that they number, altogether, 4,885 souls, and that the white popu- 
lation of the counties in which they are, was, in 1835, as shown 
by the State census, 461,608 souls, or almost 100 whites to one 
Indian. 

" P^'rom this it will be seen that nothing like apprehension from 
the presence of these Indians can be felt by the whites; that the 
inconvenience of the reservations to the white settlements, in 
many cases, — the desire to bring into profitable settlement and cul- 
tivation the lands they occupy, — and the injurious effects upon 
society, in all cases and with both races, of tamiliar intercourse 
between them, are the prominent interests which the citizens and 
State of New York have in the ratification of this treaty. To 
the city and town of Buft'alo, immediately bordering upon one of 
the largest and most populous of the Seneca reservations, and the 
city and town containing a white population of full 20,000 souls, 
this question was one of more deep and pervading interest, as it 
was also, properly considered, to the Indians residing upon that 
reservation. But he believed he should be justified by the fact, 
if he were to say that, even in the counties where these Indians 
are, the strong feeling for their preservation from the accumulated 
evils which surround them, and which, it is seen, are rapidly pro- 
ducing their extinction, creates a deeper interest with the whites 
for their removal to the Indian country, than any considerations 



Life and Times of Silas Wkioht. 961 

of convenience or property anticipated from the accomplishment 
of that object. 

" Fourth. The interests of the United States. 

"Much of the debate had turned upon this point ; and he was 
bound to confess that he thought it the strongest ground upon 
which the treaty could be resisted. Yet he hoped to show that 
even this ground of resistance was not well taken ; and for that 
purpose he would recur to the facts in the case touching the 
national treasury. 

" He had before remarked, that the small suras to be paid to 
the various bands amounted to about $20,000, and that the gene- 
ral payment stipulated to be made to all the bands, in a propor- 
tion per capita as they should remove west, was $400,000. These 
payments together would be about $420,000, but of the whole 
sum he did not believe an amount exceeding $10,000 would be 
called for during the present year. Such was the condition of 
all these Indians, that he did not suppose it possible that any 
considerable proportion of them, if even a single Indian, could 
remove, after this advanced period of the spring, and after the 
appropriations under the treaty could be made. Of the sums 
payable to the various bands, he recollected but one sum, of 
$1,000 to the St, Regis, which was payable before removal, and 
that sum was not required to be paid until the expiration of one 
year from the final ratification of the treaty. The immediate 
demand upon the treasury, therefore, was not to alarm any one; 
but the ultimate payment was considerable; and how was the 
treasury to be compensated for it ? Tins was the essential 
inquiry; and if it could be satisfactorily answered, he hoped this 
objection to the treaty would be considered obviated. 

" The answer, then, was that the first article of the treaty cedes 
to the United States the tract of land owned by these bands of 
Indians at Green Bay, in the territory of Wisconsin, being 435,000 
acres. At the present minimum price of the government for the 
public domain, this land will bring into the treasury $543,'750; 
while its location upon the Fox river, and its quality, are said to 
give it peculiar prominence and to insure its instant sale for 
immediate settlement. He thought it, therefore, fair to antici- 
pate, in case of a prompt survey and sale, that this land would 
61 



962 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

bring into the treasury all the money required to carry the treaty 
into effect as soon and as rapidly as it would be wanted, and 
would afford a surplus more than equal to the expenses of the 
survey and sale. 

"To this extent, therefore, no argument against the treaty was 
to be drawn from the demands it would create upon the public 
treasury. Another argument had been used, however, having 
the same tendency, which required examination. It was that the 
country stipulated to be given to these Indians, west, was more 
than an equivalent for their Green Bay lands, inasmuch as 320 
acres for each soul was given in lieu of 100. 

"The answer to this was, that the country west was a part of 
that great country west of the States which the United States, 
in the prosecution of a wise and humane policy toward the 
remaining Indian tribes, have set apart for their permanent and 
peaceful and undisturbed homes, and for the appropriation of 
which forever to that object the faith of the nation has been 
most solemnly pledged. It was wholly immaterial, therefore, in 
a pecuniary sense, what Indians should occupy any particular 
portion of this territory. The whole was set apart for Indian 
occupancy; and in no treaty heretofore made with any Indians 
in the Union, with a view to their removal to the Indian country 
west of the Mississippi, had the value of that portion of that 
country to be assigned to them been taken into the account, or 
made a matter of estimate, in the purchase from them of their 
possessions within the States. This country had been set apart 
from the extensive domain of the Union as a home for the red 
men, whom the cupidity of the whites had driven from the homes 
and hunting grounds of their fathers, and many of whom had not, 
for this cause — like many of these remnants of bands yet linger- 
ing in New York — any country to exchange for that quiet home 
thus offered to them. The policy, therefore, had been to pur- 
chase their possessions and pay the estimated value of them, 
independently of the new country to be assigned to them; and 
he believed, if the treaties were carefully examined, it would fur- 
ther appear that the expenses of their removal and their subsist- 
ence for one year at tlieir new homes had been paid from the 
public treasury, over and above the value of the lands purchased 



Life and Tjmms of Silas Wright. 963 

from them. Not so in tins case. The value of tlu; lands pur- 
chased was not problematical. They were already in the middle 
of a settled and rapidly settling country. Their quality was well 
known and. their location of the most desirable character, and yet 
at the minimum price of the government lands they would bring 
more than $100,000 beyond every sum to be paid under the pro- 
visions of this treaty. Nay, they would bring into the treasury 
more money than was to be paid under the treaty, and the cost 
to the United States of the country to be given to the Indians 
west besides. 

"Was. this treaty, then, to be rejected, on account of its unfa- 
vorable influence upon the pecuniary interests of the United 
States ? He trusted not. 

"There was another view of this point which would i)lace the 
interests of the United States in a very different light. It was 
admitted on all hands that the treaty had been assented to, and 
was perfect and binding as to all the bands except the Senecas. 
It had been before seen that the Green Bay lands were the pro- 
j)erty of the New York Indians generally and equally. A portion 
of those lands, equal to 65,000 acres, had been, by a late treaty, 
granted in severalty to that portion of the Oneidas now at Green 
Bay, and they had ceased to be any longer parties to this treaty. 
The quantity of land remaining was 435,000 acres, the common 
property of all the bands, this portion of the Oneidas only 
excepted. The population of all the bands, as given in the sche- 
dule annexed to the treaty, and forming part of it, was 5,485 
souls. Deduct the Oneidas at Green Bay, 600 souls, and there 
would remain a population of 4,885, owning the 435,000 acres of 
land. Of this population the Senecas and the Onondagas and 
Cayugas, residing upon their reservations, numbered 2,633. 
These taken from the 4,885 would leave 2,252, as to whom the 
treaty was admitted to be ratified and perfect. Now, the right 
of all these Indians in the Green Bay lands is a common, undi- 
vided right ; and if, therefore, the treaty be not confirmed as to 
the Senecas, the United States will be the owner of the 2,252 
shares in common with the Senecas, who will remain the owners 
of the 2,633 shares, the whole being in common and undivided, 
and the common interests of all the proprietors being in and to 



964 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

every part. The United States, therefore, will be unable to 
realize anything for their interest, because they can neither con- 
vey nor give title to a single separate foot of the land. 

" Still, by the last article of the treaty, the United States must 
pay that proportion of the $400,000, which 2,258 bears to 2,633, 
because as to the 2,252 Indians the treaty is perfect. In other 
words, the United States must advance the gratuities to the 
small bands, amounting to $20,000, and must pay about half of 
the $400,000, and will have, as a compensation for these pay- 
ments, a common and undivided right with the Senecas to about 
one-half of the Green Bay lands, a right of which it cannot avail 
itself for any useful purpose whatever, while thus held in com- 
mon with the Indians. On the contrary, confirm the treaty as 
to the Senecas, as it is confirmed as to the other bands, and the 
right to the Green Bay lands becomes perfect, and the treasury 
will be fully indemnified for all the payments required to be 
made under the treaty. 

" Could anything more be required to show the true pecuniary 
interests of the United States to be favorable to the confirmation 
of the treaty ? It was due to the Territory of Wisconsin, too, if 
within the fair exercise of the powers of the Senate, that these 
Green Bay lands, within the immediate neighborhood of one of 
its most important trading towns, should be disincumbered and 
opened for a market and for settlement. This was an interest of 
the United States which could not be disregai'ded, whether it 
was looked at in reference to the sale of our other lands there, or 
to our duty toward the present inhabitants of that territory. 

'•'•Last and most important. The interests of the Indians, parties 
to the treaty. 

"In a pecuniary sense these interests are clear, strong and 
decided. They are, altogether, 4,885 souls, and they are to 
receive from the pre-emption company about $212,000 in money, 
and from the United States about $420,000 more, and at their 
new homes, secure from the encroachments of the whites, 320 
acres of land to each soul, man, woman and child, of all the 
bands. All this they are to have in addition to the annuities 
which they now annually receive from the United States and 
from the State of New York, and which are to be regulary paid 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 965 

to them by an express stipulation of the treaty. These annuities 
tocrether cannot fall short of the sum of $20,000, and are believed 
to exceed that amount. Then all or nearly all the bands, except 
the Senecas and Tuscaroras, have lands to sell to the State of 
New York, and for which, by the long-established practice of the 
State, they will receive the full appraised value in money, or in 
permanent annuities, as they shall choose. 

" Was ever an entire community so rich as these Indians will 
be in lands and money? Well has Gen. Dearborn said: 

" ' The same liberal terms which have been offered to these Indians, if 
extended to any county in New Enghxnd, would nearly depopulate it in six 
months. ' 

" If such are the clear and strong advantages to the Indians 
pecuniarily from this treaty, what are they to expect from the 
change proposed in their physical and moral condition ? It was 
only necessary to look back to the days of the American Revo- 
lution, to answer this inquiry. Then the New York Indians were 
the mighty Iroquois, an enemy almost as terrible to our Revolu- 
tionary fathers as the civilized enemy with whom they were con- 
tending. Even in a divided state, and with one of their strongest 
bands, the Oneidas, arrayed upon the side of the patriots in that 
glorious contest, the five remaining allied bands held our arms at 
bay for years, and rather advanced upon than were driven from 
the settlements, though opposed by some of oui- most brave and 
skillful generals. Some sixty or seventy years have passed, and 
now the New York Indians are the miserable scattered remnants 
of these powerful nations, and also of the St. Regis, the Stock- 
bridge, the Brothertown and the Munsee tribes, and numbering 
in all less than 5,000 souls. Some of the bands of the Six 
Nations have entirely disappeared, and others are reduced to a 
few families, and have no home but such as they enjoy from the 
generosity of their allied neighbors. The same generous attach- 
ment to their race has given a home among the Six Nations to 
the Stockbridges from Massachusetts, the Brothertowns from 
Rhode Island and Connecticut, and the Munsees from Pennsyl- 
vania, from the Wyoming country, all the remnants of once pow- 
erful Indian nations, driven from their lands and their homes by 
the (to them) desolating march of civilization, and having not 



966 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

where to rest their feet, until our faithful allies, the Oiieidas, 
tendered them a resting place and a home in their country. 

" What has produced this startling change in these hardy 
children of nature, within the short space allotted to the life of a 
single man '? The answer stares us in the face. Not war, nor 
pestilence, nor famine, but the friendly touch of the white man ! 
The progress, not of arms against them, but of settlements and 
civilization around them. Look at the Senecas. They constitute 
a moiety of all the Indians now in New York. In the war of 
1812-15, they numbered their thousand warriors, and sent them 
to the field, led by the gallant Frasier, to strengthen our army 
upon the frontiers and within the territory of the enemy. Where 
now are those thousand warriors of the Senecas ? Did that war 
reduce their number? No, sir; peace and friendly intercourse 
with us have done it, and already that thousand has become reduced 
to four hundred, if not within that number. 

" He spoke from a statement given to him by two intelligent 
chiefs of the nation. The statement was too lono- to trouble the 
Senate with, but it gave a history of the perishing condition of 
that people, which could not fail to move all to their relief. 
They were perishing from their contact with the whites; while, so 
far from improving from the civilization around and among them, 
they are, as a people, worse fed, worse clad and worse provided, 
than they were when they had never seen a white man. The 
labors of philanthropists have been sedulously performed among 
portions of this tribe for a series of years, without being able to 
arrest their downward and rapid march toward complete extinc- 
tion. While some are made wiser and better by their white 
associates, a vastly larger number are made more idle and more 
vicious. 

" The paper before him gives a description of the state of 
society upon the Buffalo Creek reservation, produced by the 
proximity of the large and populous town of Buffalo, which can- 
not be read without pain and loathing. Superadded to all the 
other vices which have never failed to be imparted to the Indian 
from association with our cities, seduction and prostitution of the 
Indian females are said to have become frightfully common; and 
that the most dreadful of all the consequences of pollution of this 



Life and Tiiies of Silas Wright. 967 

sort has reached the tribe, and is rapidly spreading itself among 
this portion of it. Thus a scourge, more deadly and fatal than 
any other which has ever afflicted the Indian — a scourge unknown 
to the natives until the white man was known — is sweeping over 
this small remnant of the once proud Seneca nation, sowing the 
seeds of a slow and misei'able and lingering death around the 
germs of life. The statement before him expressed the confident 
belief that a majority of the children born alive in the nation die 
within the age of twelve months, many from (ixposure, from wniit 
of proper nourishment and oi-diuary comforts, from the careless- 
ness of parents, and not a few from disease inherited from the 
jnother. 

"He would not, he could not, dwell upon this picture; and 
yet there are those whose mistaken sympathy would hold these 
people where they are, to perish under the load of vice wliicli 
surrounds them, pervades their society in every form, and is 
sweeping them into the gi'ave with unexampled i-apidity. Not 
so with him. He would change their condition. He would 
remove them from the contamination which surrounds and is 
overwhelming them. He would place them where they may 
again be Indians; where they may again have the motives 
before them of ambition, of enterprise, of pleasure, of profit, 
which stimulate the Indian; and where, secure from the encroach- 
ments of the whites, they may again become independent and 
free and virtuous. 

"But, Mr. President, said Mr. W., reject this treaty; combine, 
as you will then combine, the cupidity of the pre-emption com- 
pany with that of the white settlers who now surround them, 
and from interest resist the company and the execution of this 
treaty — for the common object of both is gain from the Indians 
and from their lands — and when they find that a division of 
interest defeats either, a combination may be easily formed 
which will favor both; I say, accomplish this, and then what 
will be the condition of the New York Indians? How long will 
they be able to withstand a combination of interests so strong 
and so strongly wielded ? They cannot withstand it, sir; and a 
few years will show you their history in that of the Stockbridges, 
the Brothertowns and the Munsees. They will be found miser- 



968 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

able wanderers among their red brethren in some remote part of 
the country, without a home, or the means to procure one; with- 
out the comforts of life, or provision for their future support; 
their members but a fraction of the present population, and their 
last hope buried with the last council fire which burned upon 
those reservations they have been compelled to abandon to their 
white neighbors to avoid perfect extinction. 

" May I not hope I have succeeded in proving that it is within 
the power of the Senate to declare the assents of the Senecas to 
this treaty satisfactory, and thus to save them from a fate so 
certain and so sad ? " 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 9G9 



Chapter L XXXIV. 

THE BANKRUPT BILL OF 1840. 

The overtrading m lands and merchandise, between 
1836 and 1840, had produced not only bankruptcy, but 
actual insolvency, to a very great extent. A vast num- 
ber of active men were so badly embarrassed as to prevent 
their doing business. Consequently there was an exten- 
sive call for a general bankrupt law, as authorized by the 
Constitution. Mr. Weight favored a uniform one, con- 
ferring upon creditors as well as debtors the right to 
institute proceedings, and to subject corporations to 
them the same as individuals. He contended that the 
effect of a bill containing merely the voluntary provi- 
sion would leave the creditor without remedy, and 
would seriously affect, if not destroy, the credit of oar 
citizens in foreign countries. He expressed a doubt 
whether a law without this provision would be within 
the meaning of the Constitution. He moved several 
amendments, which were engrafted upon the bill which 
passed the Senate on the 24th of June, 1840, by yeas 24, 
nays 23, Mr. Wright voting in favor of it. It did not 
pass the House at this session. At the next it passed 
both Houses, and became a law on the 19th of August, 
1841, but was repealed on the 3d of March, 1843. 



970 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 



Chapter LXXXV. 

THE BANKS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 

The subject of the charters of the banks in the District 
of Columbia came up again at the first session of the 
twenty-sixth Congress, in 1840, and was much discussed. 
The objections entertained, by Mr. Weight and others, 
were to tlie details of the provisions presented for con- 
sideration, as the following remarks by him will show : 

" Mr. Wright had no strong feeling on the subject before 
them. He did not desire to be captious in legishition ; but he 
wished the Senate to look at the gituation in which it was placed. 
A new bill, and one complicated in its provisions, came from the 
House of Representatives, adopting former legislation as a part 
of its substance, and what were they told ? Why, that that bill 
was to become one of the laws of the United States this day, or the 
most serious consequences, which gentlemen feelingly portrayed, 
must ensue. Now, he would ask gentlemen, in the spirit of candor, 
if it was expected or believed that a bill of this kind could take its 
second reading, pass into committee of the whole, be discussed, 
amended, ordered to a third reading (and let it be remembered 
that when it comes to a third reading the same difficulty will 
occur as now), and go back to the other House, be enrolled, sent 
to the President of the United States, and returned by him with 
his signature, all in one day '? Had any Senator believed that all 
this could be performed between this time and twelve o'clock 
to-night, in the face of a fair, intelligent and determined, though 
not a captious, opposition ? He could not believe it, and he 
begged the Senate not to wipe out its rules with such little promise 
of utility. He knew that many members of the Senate were 
anxious, and honestly so, for the passage of the bill. For him- 
self, he differed with them. He did not believe in the abatement 
of suits when the clock strikes twelve to-night. He appealed to 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 971 

the Senate to say whether it was worth while to try to run these 
bills through in so hurried a manner. We know and see, con- 
tinued Mr. W., that it cannot be run through unresisted. There 
was an opposition here, though small, to a certain class of these 
institutions, but there was none to a different class of them. In 
reference to such a law as would save all the rights of these cor- 
porations, and enable them to wind up their affairs, he knew 
there would be no opposition to it. But in opposition to that 
legislation which would continue to them the power to discount, 
upon irredeemable paper, there was a small but determined 
minority. He believed they could not make that bill a law 
to-night, if they were to wipe out every rule of the Senate ; and 
a failure of one minute to them would be as fatal as the failure 
of a month. Then, said Mr. W., let us look at this matter coolly. 
Let us act on it as a legislative body should — act liberally and 
rightfully, but let us act with due deliberation." 

The bill was finally lost by a vote of 20 to 16, Mr. 
Wright voting for it. On a motion to reconsider, the 
vote was ayes 18, nays 21, and so the bill was fiually lost. 

Mr. Weight to Alvin Hunt. 

" Jamestown, Chautauqua County, ) 
"15^A October, 1840. \ 

"My Dear Sir. — I have intended to visit Jefferson before the 
election, and have given encouragement to our friends in the 
county that I would do so. I now find that my engagements in 
this quarter of the State will probably put it out of my power 
to do so. I am to attend a mass meeting here to-morrow, at 
Buffalo on Monday, Batavia on Wednesday, in Niagara or 
Orleans on Friday, and Rochester on Saturday, the twenty-fourth. 
From there, it is my intention to take the first steamboat I can 
get for Ogdensburgh. It will, in my judgment, be too late to 
make it useful to attempt a mass meeting in Jefferson, even if it 
should be otherwise desirable, and therefore I make no calcula- 
tion to stop there. If I could, I would tell you when I should 
be at the harbor, but I do not know the days of the boats, and 
at this season of the year I suppose they will not be regular. 



972 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

" Will you do me the favor to give this information to our 
friends at your place, as they may have expuected to hear from 
me on this subject at an earlier day. I have not a moment to 
say anything to you of prospects in this quarter. 

" In great haste, most truly yours, 

" SILAS WRIGHT, Jk. 

"Alvijst Hunt, Esq., Watertown, N. Y." 

Me. Weight to Lucius Moody. 

"Canton, Sth JSTovember, 1840. 

" My Dbae Beother. — I arrived home in safety the morning 
after I left you at Oswego, though we made so slow a passage 
that I did not get a chance to stop at all, but left the boat and 
went directly into the stage. I found Clarissa in better general 
health than she has enjoyed before for some time, and she ascribes 
her improvement to her trip to Toronto. All our friends here 
are well; and mother, Luman and Horace have made us a visit 
this evening. 

" I have made a statement of your interest on the Heaton land 
contract, since my return, and have given it to Luman, this 
evening, with eighty-six dollars and seventy cents, the same 
which I made your due, I have left, with the statement, your 
draft and the small receipt you gave me for one year's interest, 
y^ou can draw on Luman for the above sum, eighty-six dollars 
and seventy cents, and when you are here you can look over the 
papers, and if there are mistakes I will rectify them hereafter. 

" We are off on Wednesday morning ; and as the appearances 
to us here are that the whigs have whipped us, and that old Tip, 
and Tyler, too, and log-cabins and coon skins are to have a reign, 
it is not unlikely we may make a short absence this time. 

"All wish to be affectionately remembered to yourself, Julia 
and Master Horace, and if you will occasionally write us, at 
Washington, we will pay in kind or in documents. 

"In great haste, most truly yours, 

"SILAS WRIGHT, Je. 
" Capt. Lucius Moody." 



Life and Times of Silas Weight. 973 



Chapter LXXXVI. 

REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY. 

The independent treasury bill became a law on the 
4th of July. 1840, and steps were taken by Mr. Van 
Buren's administration for putting it in 023eration. 
Should this be completed and meet the expectation of 
its friends, its repeal and the substitution of a national 
bank would be no easy task. Agitation was calculated 
to prevent the public mind settling down in its favor. 
On the 15th of December, 1840, Mr. Clay, of Kentucky, 
offered a resolution instructing the Committee of Finance 
to report a bill for its repeal, upon which he opened 
a discussion in which a large number of Senators par- 
ticipated. Mr. Wright, as chairman of the Committee 
on Finance and author of the bill, was looked to as one 
of its most appropriate defenders. He performed this 
duty to the satisfaction of his friends, and addressed 
to the Senate the following pertinent remarks : 

" Mr. Wright said he caine from one of the nineteen States 
ahuded to by the Senator from Kentucky, and he was happy to 
say to that Senator that he rejoiced to tind it was the disposition 
of the party about to come into power to make precisely the 
issue tendered by this resolution. He thanked that Senator, 
therefore — as he would have done yesterday, when the resolution 
was presented, had it been proper — for presenting that proposi- 
tion to them. He could say to that Senator that, for one — and 
perhaps he could say it with more propriety than any otlier 
member of that body — he did not desire further to discuss that 
measure, either before the Senate or the country; he could only 
say that, when the Senate was called upon to act upon the pro- 
position, he was desirous that it should be with an understand- 
ino- of what it is, and tliat the Senate might be as full as may be, 



974 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

coiisisteut with the attendance of members in the city. To-day 
he did not desire to act upon it, for one Senator now in town 
was sick and not able to be in his phxce ; and another left town 
after the last adjournment of the Senate, prior to yesterday, with 
the confident expectation of returning last evening, who had not 
yet resumed his seat; but if there was a disposition in the Senate 
to act upon the resolution, and make an expression which would 
not mislead the public mind, he should desire that expression 
to be made now and upon this resolution. It would be a 
work of supererogation, in a short session like this, to pass 
the resolution, and instruct a committee to rejDort a bill 
for the proposed repeal, without any expectation that the 
bill would meet the approbation of the Senate. Hence he 
wished that all the members in attendance might be present 
when the vote should be taken. But he could not excuse 
himself if he allowed the ojjportunity to pass without some 
slight reference to the remarks of the Senator by whom 
the resolution had been introduced. That Senator had become 
deeply impressed with the result of the late election; and on 
the point whether it was or was not a full and free and fair 
expression of the popular will, he, Mr. Wright, did not stand 
there to express an opinion. He would merely call to the honor- 
able Senator's mind that they had just passed through the first 
election, under this government, when principles on the part of 
the dominant party were not declared, when measures were not 
avowed, and when men stood before the country, not to proclaim 
to the people their principles and measures, but to apologize for 
saying nothing in reference to their measures or the policy which 
they proposed to adopt. That being the case, the Senate would 
pardon him for calling their attention to the fact that he, and 
other Senators who had sat there with him from 1832 and 1833 
to the present time, had seen election after election, when it was 
the fashion of candidates and of parties to avow their principles, 
and had heard the honorable Senator, with an ingenuity which 
cannot be surpassed, parry the issue his, Mr. Wright's, friends had 
made, and contend, almost with success,that nothing was prejudged 
by the popular voice in those popular elections. Take the very 
measure which it was now" proposed to repeal, and what was the 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 975 

judgment of the people, and what was the public expression at 
the congressional elections of 1838 and 1839? Then, if ever, a 
distinct issue or proposition was presented to the people of this 
country. That was the issue that was pending during the war of 
more than thi'ee years' duration, of wliich the honorable Senator 
had spoken — that was the only jtoint in controversy; and wliat 
was the result? There was a popular brancli of the national 
Legislature unfavorable to this measure in 1837 and 1838, and one 
was returned in its place, in 1838 and 1839, favorable to it; ami it 
was adopted in pursuance of a pronunciation of the will of the 
people of this country, pending the controversy as to the measure 
itself. That popular mind may have changed — it may be differ- 
ent now; but if it be, and if the pronunciation of the popular 
opinion has been against the independent treasury, of what 
measure, as a substitute, has it been in favor ? Has the pronuncia- 
tion of the late election declared the popular voice of the country 
to be in favor of a national bank ? Will the Senator contend 
that it was so, and will his party assume it ? Or has it declared 
in favor of the policy of another political party, and a return to 
the system of State bank deposits ? Would the honorable Sen- 
ator admit that ? He, Mr. Wright, did not say the honorable 
Senator would admit either or both, but he had a right to ask the 
question. 

" But the Senator says the result of the late election has been 
a triumphant pronunciation against this measure. How is it 
ascertained ? By what declaration of policy or principle on the 
part of that party Avhich has become predominant ? Why, he 
should suppose — and he made the remark without intending disre- 
spect anywhere — if the result of the late election could be claimed 
as proving anything, it was to prove that they were to take down 
the splendid edifice in which he then stood, and erect a log cabin 
in its place; that instead of the rich draperies and valuable 
pictures before them, they were to hang around their chamber 
coon skins, cat skins and other trophies of the chase. But the 
Senator does not claim such to be our duties, resulting from the 
late expression of the popular will. No, such is not and has not 
been the result of the pronunciation of tlie will of the freemen 
of this country; and yet, could they not prove such conclusions 



976 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

with double force and double testimony over that which the 
honorable Senator seeks now to establish — the condemnation of 
the sub-treasury measure? And yet they were called upon to be 
silent, to submit and to obey this foregone decree. Against the 
popular pronunciation made at the late elections he should not 
intentionally utter one word; the decision of the people he 
should respect, for they were yet, thank God, the highest tribunal 
known to our country and her institutions. When the powers 
which that election has brought into existence shall constitu- 
tionally take their places, he should be one of those who, whether 
as a private citizen or in the high position in which he then stood, 
would be found ready to render a constitutional submission; but 
he was not ready to admit that, in rendering its verdict, the 
popular voice had pronounced its decision against this measure; 
or, if it had, that it had decided in favor of any other measure in 
its place. What, then, was the argument of the gentleman in 
favor of this precipitate repeal ? Was it that the measure was 
doing mischief to the country and was working evil to the peo- 
ple? He, Mr. Wright, did not understand him to say so. It 
was that it was not carried out in its terms and sj^irit, — that the 
law was not observed, but that it was violated, by the officers 
appointed under it. Well, the honorable Senator might be 
right, for he, Mr. Wright, had not that acquaintance with bank- 
ing institutions which would enable him to pronounce on the 
fact. If that was so, however, did it follow that the law must 
be repealed because the law was not observed ? And should 
they expect from the honorable Senator that mode of getting 
rid of a salutary law which was not executed? Should not, 
rather, an inquiry be instituted to ascertain whether the officers 
did discharge their duty? He knew not what the fact might be 
anywhere, but he confessed it w^ould have pleased him better if 
the honorable gentleman had consented to take Philadelphia 
instead of New York as an example; and he knew the New 
York banks wei*e specie-paying banks; and he knew it was the 
consti'uctive duty of the Receiver-General to receive three-fourths 
of the revenue there in the. notes of specie-paying banks; but does 
the Philadelphia Receiver-General take checks upon non-specie- 
paying banks? And if the Receiver-General of New York, 



Life and Tj3ies of Silas Wrioht. 977 

instead of compelling the merchants to bring specie to his vaults, 
takes a certified check that is payable in specie and presents it 
for payment himself, is the law violated or is the community 
injured? What, then, is the argument? Why, that there had 
been but little salutary influence from the practical operation of 
this law, and therefore it was better to repeal it. Repeal it for 
what? To take the revenues out of the reach of Congress and 
place them again where they had virtually been since the suspen- 
sion of the banks, in 1837, until the passage of the law, — in the 
hands of the executive ? Will it be better to put them exclu- 
sively in executive hands, or to keep them within the power and 
provisions of a law, even if it does not suit the Senator, until a 
better system can be devised ? What is the course of wisdom, 
and what has been the popular voice in the matter? But lie was 
going further than he had intended, and therefore he should sus- 
pend further remark. He did not desire to foreclose the debate 
by a motion to postpone now; but when the Senate came to act 
upon this resolution he desired that the decision should be the 
sense of the Senate, and of as full a Senate as the attendance of 
members of the Senate in the city would permit. For the pres- 
ent, he would only ask that the vote be taken by ayes and noes." 

The debate on this resolution was continued to the 20th 
of February, 1841. Pending the discussion, Mr. Allen, of 
Ohio, proposed to amend the resolution by striking out 
all after the word "resolved," and inserting the following : 

"That the financial policy established at the origin of this 
government, by the first acts of its legislation, and especially by 
the thirtieth section of the 'Act to regulate the collection of 
duties, etc.,' approved by President Washington July 31st, 1789, 
and by the fourth section of the 'Act to establish the Treasury 
department, etc.,' approved by President Washington September 
2d, 1789, was in strict conformity to the fundamental principles 
of the Constitution. 

''Resolved, That, by a long series of subsequent acts tending 

to the great detriment of the public welfare, that policy had been 

departed from, and was, by the 'Act to provide for the collection, 

safe-keeping, transfer and disbursement of the public revenue,' 

62 



978 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

approved by President Van Buren July 4, 1840, fully restored, 
and ought to be adhered to; and, therefore, 

'■'■.Resolved, That tlie government ought to collect no more taxes 
from the people, either directly or indirectly, than are absolutely 
necessary to an economical administration of its affairs. 

^'■Resolved, That the taxes paid by the people ought not to be 
lent out by the government to individuals or to corporations. 

^^Resolved, That the taxes so paid by the people ought not to 
be placed by the government in the custody of agents who are 
not made, by the Constitution and the laws, responsible to the 
people. 

^'■Resolved, That, in the transaction of its own affairs, the 
government ought to receive and tender in payment as money 
nothing but that which is made a legal tender by the Constitution." 

This amendment was considered, but no evidence is 
found of its adoption or rejection. On motion of Mr. 
Sevier, at the close of the discussion, Mr. Clay' s resolution 
was laid on the table, by the following vote : 

"Yeas — Messrs. Allen, Anderson, Benton, Buchanan, Calhoun, 
Clay, of Alabama, Cuthbert, Fulton, Hubbard, King, Linn, Lump- 
kin, Mouton, Nicholson, Norvell, Pierce, Roane, Robinson, Sevier, 
Smith, of Connecticut, Sturgeon, Tappan, Walker, Wall, Williams, 
Wright, and Young — 27. 

" JVays — Messrs. Bayard, Bates, Clay, of Kentucky, Clayton, 
Crittenden, Dixon, Graham, Henderson, Huntington, Ker, Kniglit, 
Mangam, Merrick, Nicholas, Phelps, Porter, Prentiss, Preston, 
Rives, Ruggles, Smith, of Indiana, Southard, Tallmadge, Webster, 
and White — 25.'' 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 979 



Chapter LXXXVII. 

FINANCES OF THE COUNTRY. 

On the 14tli of December, 1840, Mr. Wright moved 
that so much of the President' s message as related to the 
finances of the country be referred to the Committee on 
Finance. At the instance of Mr. Webster the considera- 
tion of the motion was postponed. When it came up for 
consideration, on the seventeenth, Mr. Wright thus 
addressed the Senate : 

" Mr, Weight said the honorable Senator from Massachusetts 
[Mr. Webster] had felt it to be his duty to open this discussion 
upon the message of the President, pending a simple motion to 
refer the portions of it to which he had alluded to the appro- 
priate committee of the Senate, under the apprehension expressed 
by him that the publication and distribution of the statements 
and views of the President might produce erroneous impressions 
upon the minds of the people of the country. A similar appre- 
hension, entertained by Mr. W^kight as to the remarks of the 
Senator, moved him to make this reply to that gentleman. A 
belief that his remaks were calculated to give erroneous impres- 
sions as to the message, and the fiscal condition of the country 
at the present time, made it his duty to notice some of the posi- 
tions and arguments of the honorable Senator, and to correct, as 
far as he might be able, the errors of fact and conclusion which 
seemed to him to have been committed. This he intended to do 
as briefly as possible; and in the discussion he should endeavor 
to imitate the courtesy which had so clearly distinguished the 
lanffuage and manner of the honorable Senator. 

"The Senator first referred to page eight of the message, where 
the President speaks of a national debt and a national bank. The 
Senator did not, at that time, consider it within his object to make 
any remarks in reference to the President's observations as to a 



980 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

bank; but it was to the views expressed in the message on the sub- 
ject of a national debt to which his attention was directed, with 
that point and force which always characterize the Senator's mind, 
and, he might perhaps say, on this occasion, the ingenuity which 
sometimes characterizes his arguments. He had asked if the Presi- 
dent supposed, or if anybody supposed that there was a party in this 
country friendly to a national debt, per se. He, Mr. Wkight, did 
not believe that position met the President's remarks at all, for he 
did not understand the President as offering his views and urging 
his reasons against the contraction and perpetuation of a national 
debt on the ground that it was a debt to be contracted for the 
single and sole love of the debt for itself. He understood the 
President as taking other and higher ground, and as endeavoring to 
impress upon his countrymen, on the occasion which called forth 
that message, the evils of debt — under any circumstances, how- 
ever, under whatever circumstances, and for whatever considera- 
tion contracted — and attempting to convince them that it should 
be avoided at all times and upon all occasions, and for all con- 
siderations, when the safety and honor of the nation will permit. 
Such he understood to be the drift and purport of the message 
upon this very important topic. Yet he, Mr. W., was prepared 
to go farther than the President had gone, and say what he had 
not said. He would say, not tliat there is a political party in 
this country in favor of a national debt, per se, but that there 
are interests in this country so in favor of a national debt — 
interests which ever had, do now, and ever will favor the exist- 
ence and perpetuation of a national debt, per se, for itself, for 
the advantages they derive from it. He believed those interests 
existed in every civilized country — he believed they were ever 
active — and he believed they constituted an influence, against 
which it was one of the prominent objects of the President to 
warn Congress and the country. What are those interests which 
naturally favor a national debt, per se ; a national debt for itself, 
and for the benefit to be derived from its existence? Retired 
capitalists, men who have withdrawn from business, with a capi- 
tal which they wish to preserve for themselves and their families, 
constitute one such interest. Such persons naturally desire a 
permanent and safe investment for their money; and it is most 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 981 

rational that they should vastly prefer their country as their 
debtors, if it be of good standing and credit, to any other. 
Look at England. What supports and perpetuates the aristoc- 
racy of wealth there Init the British national debt ? It rests 
upon the debt, and could not be sustained without it, and the 
indebtedness of the country is its strength and powL-r. Mr. W. 
said he spoke not of this interest, as now existing in this coun- 
try, in censure; it was as natural as existence itself; it must grow 
up in every prosperous community; will ever exist in some form, 
and can only be curbed and controlled by a people and govern- 
ment free from debt. 

" But was there not another interest, and an important one in 
every commercial community, which was benefited by, and there- 
fore was in favor of the existence of a national debt for itself ? 
He spoke of that great interest connected with foreign com- 
merce, and desirous of a medium of convenient remittance 
between its own and foreign countries. Why, he had seen fre- 
quently the utility of a national debt pressed upon the country 
for this cause; and quite recently articles had appeared in the 
public newspapers — and articles written with great ability — 
stating that since the extinguishment of our debt, fluctuations 
in our paper system had been more frequent and more deleteri- 
ous, and contending that the existence of a national debt, and 
its influence on commercial transactions, were necessary to give 
that system stability. But a year ago, a proposition was delib- 
erately put forth of that character, recommending that this 
country should create a debt, not singly to furnish these com- 
mercial accommodations, but urging that these would be neces- 
sary incidental benefits, while other great objects, valuable in 
the mind of the writer, were supposed to warrant the contrac- 
tion of the proposed debt of hundreds of millions. These were 
not all. 

"There was a third interest, which embraced that class of 
enterprising, acute persons, who seek a living, and their fortunes, 
by dealing in stocks — the class of brokers. They, as a class of 
men, must be attached to a national debt, ^:>e;- se ; for nothing 
could be more desirable in the stock market than an abundance 
of national stocks and securities, and that abundance of custom- 



982 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

ers, seeking investments and a market, which a full supply of 
superior stocks would never fail to present to that department 
of trade. Such securities, too, must have a tendency to keep the 
prices of stocks more stable, and thus render the profits of the 
broker more certain, and his calling more safe, if not more 
lucrative, 

"A further interest, having the same natural tendency, was 
the money incorporations of the country, authorized to deal in 
stocks and exchange, or practically so dealing with or without 
authority. These institutions, more naturally than the brokers, 
must favor the existence of a national debt, />er se ; inasmuch as 
the profits of their business would be equally involved, while 
their own stability would be much more essentially promoted. 
He did not enumerate this interest with any political reference. 
It was an existing interest in our country, and in every commercial 
country in the world; and it would, most likely, continue to 
exist, so long as trade and commerce existed. Properly restrained, 
it was a healthful interest to trade and commerce, while, without 
restraint, it was a fearful interest. It was always active, and at 
times powerful beyond the careless estimate of a confiding people. 
Yet it was an interest which a people free from debt need not 
fear, but from which any people loaded with debt, public or pri- 
vate, had everything to apprehend. It was a corporate interest, 
representing no feeling to which human beings are susceptible, 
and destitute, from its nature, of all human sympathies. 

" There was still another interest Avhich should be, in his judg- 
ment, in favor of a national debt per se. He referred to the men 
and interests in the country which favored the establishment and 
preservation of a national bank as an institution to regulate our 
currency and credit. He did not speak of this interest as that of 
a political party in the country, or as connected with any existing 
political party. His object was to follow the course of argument 
of the honorable Senator from Massachusetts, and take a financial 
view of the topics under discussion; and he believed in his heart 
that every man who desired the establishment and perpetuation 
of a national bank in the United States should desire, as the only 
safe and secure foundation for such an institution, a permanent 
national debt. In his opinion, that was the only safe corner-stone, 



Life and Times op Silas WmnnT. 983 

the only secure defense for a national bank in this country. It 
was not his object, upon the present occasion, to question tlie 
patriotism or purity of purpose of any friend of a national hank. 
He would not, if he could avoid it, make this discussion political, 
much less partisan. 

"He had looked at our own history, and found that a national 
debt had been the apology, and, as he thought, the controlling 
cause of our two former national banks; and he believed, further, 
that the existence and continuance of the debt had given to l)oth 
the most of the permanency arid stability which they had mani- 
fested to the country as money institutions controlling our cur- 
rency and credit. 

"He had also referred, himself, to the pecuniary institutions of 
England, and became equally satisfied that the national bank 
there could not sustain itself for an hour, with its conceded 
power over the paper system of that commercial country, if dis- 
connected from the British national debt. The capital of the 
bank consists of the debt, and the country is its debtor for the 
credit it commands. How, then, is the country to get rid of the 
bank but by the payment of the debt, and how can the debtor, 
though the proudest government in the world, control the 
creditor while these embarrassing relations exist ? It cannot be 
done, and hence the Bank of England must be as enduring as the 
debt of England. 

" So here; so everywhere. When a government is in debt and 
requires a permanent credit beyond its means of payment, it may 
require a government bank to manage and regulate its fiscal 
affairs; to extend credit when its necessities reqiure, and so regu- 
late private business as to make that extension safe and profitable 
to itself. 

" He must then repeat that, in his judgment, every man and 
every interest in this country, favorable to a national bank, 
should be also favorable to a national debt, as the only safe 
foundation upon which such a superstructure can be erected with 
any reasonable promise of permanency. 

" He must conclude, therefore, that there were in this country 
interests, strong, powerful and active interests, in favor of a 
national debt pei- se ; that these interests have favored, do now 



984 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

favor, and will continue to favor the contraction and perpetuation 
of a national debt for the advantages which they may derive 
from it, and that the President was wise in warning his country- 
men against their influence in this direction. Other interests 
might be added to the enumeration, but these were suflicient to 
elucidate the argument and show the danger to be constantly 
apprehended. 

" The honorable Senator, if Mr. Weight had understood him 
correctly, admitted that the views of the President, as expressed 
in his message upon the subject of a national debt, were correct 
and sound, but seemed to question his right to give them to his 
countrymen, because, as he contended, they were contrary to the 
practice of the administration, and of the President as its 
head. 

" To prove this position, he asserts that the present is the first 
administration, under our institutions, which has begun a national 
debt in time of peace. The assertion is true; and yet, is it a fair 
presentation of the point intended to be discussed ? Is it calcu- 
lated to do justice to the President or to his administration ? 
Why did not the Senator tell us that the adminstration of Gen. 
Jackson w;Is the first, under our institutions, which ever paid a 
national debt ? It would have been as true ; and yet the asser- 
tion, presented in this way, would have been calculated to do 
injustice to every administration preceding that of Gen. Jackson. 
The fact is that no administration, prior to that of Mr. Van 
Buren, had ever existed, under our Constitution, which could 
begin a national debt, because every preceding administration 
had found a national debt in existence. Such a debt was con- 
tracted during the war of the Revolution, before our present 
government was formed, and was first finally extinguished during 
the administration of Gen. Jackson; and yet he believed he was 
safe in saying that every administration had borrowed money, 
and thus added to the existing debt, and had made payments 
toward its extinguishment. While, therefore, it was true that 
no administration, prior to that of Mr. Van Buren, had begun a 
debt, either in a time of peace or war, and that no administration, 
prior to that of Gen. Jackson, had paid off and extinguished our 
national debt, it was also true that all administrations, as well in 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 985 

peace as war, had borrowed money, contracted debts and paid 
debts. The simple assertion of the Senator, then, tliat Mr. Van 
Buren's was the first administration which had begun a del)!, in 
time of peace, did not, in his judgment — and he pronounced the 
opinion with deference — present fairly to the country the Presi- 
dent or his administration. 

"It might be proper here to remark that, if the subsequent 
positions of the Senator were sound, no debt had beeu begun 
under Mr. Van Buren's administration, because a national debt 
had not ceased to exist. That which had been treated as our 
national debt, in our laws and in our fiscal accounts, was extin- 
guished during the administration of Gen. Jackson ; but if the 
items of Indian and other claims, referred to by the Senator, are 
to be set down as items of national debt, then has our national 
debt never been paid, and the administration of Mr. Van Buren 
cannot have ' begun ' such a debt. 

"The true and fair question is, however, why and under what 
circumstances has any portion of debt been contracted under this 
administration ? 

" It would not be necessary for him, Mr. W. said, to spend 
much time in answering this inquiry, as most of the Senators 
present were members of the body in 1837, and would retain per- 
sonal recollections of the whole matter. All would remember 
that Congress was convened extraordinarily, for the single pur- 
pose of supplying the treasury and enabling it to preserve the 
public faith and honor ; that this call was not made at a time of 
scarcity or want in the public funds, but when our revenues were 
most abundant, when we had millions on deposit with the banks, 
and millions due from them ; that their inability to pay the drafts 
of the Treasurer, in conformity with the laws of Congress, created 
the want and compelled the call of Congress ; and that the same 
inability of the banks compelled us, by the admission of all, to 
borrow money upon the credit of the people to keep the national 
treasury in operation. 

" This new debt was not, then, contracted, or, in the language 
of the Senator, ' began,' because the extravagance of the adminis- 
tration had expended our substance. No, but because our trus- 
tees—because those with whom the money of the people had 



986 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

been placed for safe-keeping, could not pay upon demand accord- 
ing to our laws ; because our millions upon millions were without 
our control, in the keeping of banking institutions, and the credit 
of the people w h ivsoi-LciI to to sustain the fiiith and honor of 
the country. What was the extent of the power then conferred 
upon the administration to contract a debt ? If his recollection 
served him, it was -$10,000,000. And what were our dues from 
the banks alone? If he was not mistaken, some 113,000,000 or 
114,000,000; and, beyond that, one of the prominent and worthy 
objects of the loan was to extend indulgence upon duty bonds 
to the merchants of the country, who were equally distressed 
with the public treasury from the revulsions of the time, Under 
such circumstances it was that the present administration ' began 
a debt in time of peace.' 

" The next position of the honorable Senator is that the admin- 
istration of Mr. Van Buren has expended much more money 
annually than the accruing revenue. Tliat, he, Mr. Wright, 
believed to be true; but he did not propose to follow the Senator 
at all in the data given to prove the position; he would say what 
he was sure would not be controverted, that the administration 
had expended, year by year, just so much and no more money 
than Congress had appropriated and ordered to be expended; 
that every year the appropriations of Congress had exceeded, by 
millions, the estimates of expenditure presented to it by the 
executive departments, and that it was a matter for Congress to 
provide the means to meet the expenditures itself directed. But 
it would not have been unjust to that administration if the honor- 
able Senator had said, in passing, that during eveiy year of its 
existence the mass of the public expenditures had been materially 
and rapidly reduced. The expenditures of 1838 were shown, by 
the President's message and the Secretary's report — the two 
documents to which the Senator had referred in this discussion — 
to be less than those of 1 83 V. Those of 1839 were some six millions 
less; those for 1840 had been from two to three millions less than 
those for 1839, and the estimates for 1841 were materially less 
than those for any preceding year. This, then, was both sides 
of the book, — it was the present administration as it is, in refer- 
ence to expenditures. During its term, those expenditures had 



Life and Times of Silas Whkiiit. 987 

been undergoing a rapid reduction, from the commencement of 
its four years to the present hour. Tliis was a just and entire 
view of the matter. 

"The next position taken by the honorable Senator was the 
most material one in his argument, and without whicli Mr. W. 
mio-ht not have felt himself called upon to make tl\is rei)ly. Tlie 
Senator did not even assert his point, but, in a manner most 
courteous, expressed his opinion that the President had made a 
variety of mistakes and omissions in his statement of the present 
national debt, as given in his message; that the country is, in 
fact, more in debt than the President and Secretary of the Trea- 
sury have represented it to be; and that, without his correction 
of these mistakes, these excesses of debt might be charged over 
to the coming administration, and the present might retire under 
appearances more favorable than the facts would warrant. 

" To examine these opinions and apprehensions of the honor- 
able Senator, and to try them by the facts, should now be his 
aim and effort, and was the purpose which had principally induced 
him to appear before the Senate upon the present occasion. 

" It was admitted that the President had referred to the balance 
of outstanding treasury notes truly. He had stated that the 
amount unredeemed did not exceed four and a half millions of dol- 
lars, but the complaint was that he had represented that as the 
w^hole debt of the country at the present time, and as the amount 
which would constitute the whole debt at the time when he should 
hand over the administration of its affairs to his successor. 
Now, how had the Senator sought to show that the President 
had been mistaken? By referring to what was called the Trust 
Funds, and principally, and he believed entirely, to those portions 
of those funds which appertain to the Indians. In reference to the 
Indian trust funds, he said not that the fact was so, but that, on 
examination, he was inclined to believe that portions of them had 
been actually expended for the ordinary uses of the treasury, and 
were now a debt resting upon the country; that the moneys stipu- 
lated by Indian treaties to be invested had not been all invested, 
but that some hundreds of thousands of dollars of these moneys 
had been paid out and expended, and were now a debt against 
the treasury. He, Mr. Wbight, had taken as much pains to 



988 Life and Times of Silas Weight. 

obtain information upon these points as the time which had 
elapsed since the Senator's remarks were made would permit; 
and as he designed to state the facts fairly, plainly and truly, as 
far as he was able, and as the various Indian treaties varied in 
their j)rovisions as to the trusts constituted under them and con- 
ferred upon the United States, he would be compelled to speak 
of certain treaties and certain trusts separately, each by itself, to 
make himself understood and to enable others to understand the 
facts. He would refer, then, in the first place, to the treaty with 
the Chickasaw Indians, as that treaty was peculiar, and the trust 
constituted and assumed was novel in our dealings with the 
Indian tribes. In this case, the United States had become the 
voluntary trustee of the Chickasaws, and had stipulated to sell 
their lands as the public domain of the United States is sold, to 
deduct simply the expenses of the treaty, of the survey and sale 
of the lands, and such other expenses as might be incurred for 
account of the Indians, not including any commissions or other 
compensation to the trustee, and to account to them for all the 
moneys which shall remain unexpended. In other words, the 
treaty binds the United States to sell the lands of these Indians 
to the best advantage, to account to them for the whole proceeds, 
and to manage such of their cash funds as shall remain in the 
hands of the government, without charge for trouble or responsi- 
bility. 

" Upon inquiry at the Treasury department, he learned that a 
law of Congress had placed the principal part of the money to be 
received under this treaty in charge of the head of that depart- 
ment, for the purpose of investment; that small portions belong- 
ing to Chickasaw orphans, and to certain members of the tribe 
denominated 'incompetent Chickasaws,' remained in charge of 
the Secretary of War; that of the money in charge of the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, all has been invested, over and above the 
portion consumed in expenses in conformity with the treaty, 
which there has been time to invest since the receipts; that the 
money is mostly paid in at the Pontioc land office, in the State 
of Mississippi, and some time is required to get the returns of 
sales and to bring the money into the treasury; that there may 
be now from $20,000 to |30,000 of these funds in the land offices, 



Life and Times of Silas Wjiiojit. 989 

in transitu, and in the treasury; but that no portions of llicni 
have been expended for tlie general uses ol' tlie treasury, and 
that investments are invariably made as soon as the sum accu- 
mulated is sufficient to autliorize a negotiation for stocks. The 
honorable Senator will see, therefore, that his conjecture that 
some 1300,000 or |400,000 of these funds had been expended is 
mistaken, and that no addition to the puljlic debt is to be sought 
in this quarter. 

"Whether or not there were small sums arising uiuler this 
treaty in the care of the War department, and not yet invested, 
he did not know, as time had not allowed him to call upon tlic 
head of that department for the information. Still, he supposed 
this information immaterial for this argument, as money in the 
charge of the War department could not be in the treasury, and 
therefore could not be reached by a warrant upon the treasury 
or expended in the ordinary calls upon it. 

"It was proper here to remark further, that the only Indian 
money in the charge of the Secretary of the Treasury for invest- 
ment is the portion of the Chickasaw fund before pointed out. 
All those moneys arising under other treaties are, by the treaties, 
committed to the charge of the Secretary of War, and Congress 
lias not yet transferred their custody to the treasury. 

" Investments of Indian moneys, to large amounts, had been 
made both under the direction of the Secretary of War and the 
Secretary of the Treasury, and accounts of the transactions had 
been laid before Congress, The honorable Senator had referred 
to them, and had spoken of the prices in some cases paid for 
stocks, in a manner to give the impression that he suspected the 
investments had not been prudently and cautiously made. Mr. 
Wright believed all the investments had been confined to stocks 
of the States, a description of security which he felt sure that 
Senator would not willingly depreciate or disparage; and if he 
would refer to the dates of the respective investments, and to the 
prices current of the stocks in the principal markets of the coun- 
try, at the several periods, little ground w^ould be discovered for 
complaint upon this point. 

" He would now pass to another class of references made by 
the honorable Senator, and where, in the opinion of Mr. Wright, 



990 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

he approximated more nearly to the discovery of a debt, techni- 
cally speaking, which is not noticed by the President. He alluded 
to the Senator's reference to several Indian treaties in a group, 
viz. : 

" Oue with the Ottawas and Chippewas $200,000 

" Oue with the Osages 69 , 120 

" One with the Delawares 46 , 080 

" One with the Sioux of Mississippi 300,000 

" One with the Sacs and Foxes of Mississippi 200,000 

" One with the Sacs and Foxes of Missouri 157,400 

" One with the Wiunebagoes. 1 ,100,000 

" One with the Creelis 350,000 

" One with the Saways 157,500 

$2,580,100 

"These treaties severally stipulate that the sums above named 
shall be invested by the United States for the benefit of the seve- 
ral tribes of Indians named, and he believed it to be true that, as 
yet, none of the sums had been invested, but that Congress had 
preferred to appropriate annually the interest upon them, as a 
part of the current annual expenses of the country. All of the 
treaties except one, that with the Delawares, had been coucluded 
since the commencement of the year 1837, and his information 
was that, in all the cases, very few sales of the lands, ceded by 
the respective treaties, had yet been made; not enough, in manj^ 
cases, to cover the expenses of the treaties, and in none suiiicient 
to bring into the treasury any considerable portion of the capital 
required to be invested. 

"Another reason exists for the non-investment of these sums, 
which has its foundation in the Constitution of the country. It 
is that Congress has neither provided nor appropriated the money 
required to make the investments; and without an appropriation 
by law, neither the Secretary of the Treasury, nor the President, 
can take money from the treasury for these or any other pur- 
poses. The treaties create the liability against the United States 
for the $2,580,100, but it is not a debt within the law, and cannot 
be noticed as such by the fiscal officer, until Congress recognize 
it, and provide for it by the proper constitutional aj)propriation. 
The treaties are the acts of the President and Senate, the treaty- 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 991 

making power of the country; but Congress and the President — 
the law-making power — can alone pay money, even iimlci- a 
treaty. If, then, every acre of tlie land ceded l)y the Indians, 
and purchased by and for the beneHt of the United States under 
these several treaties, were to be sold to-morrow, and the money 
paid into the treasury, neither the Secretary of War, nor the 
Secretary of the Treasury, nor any other person, could legally or 
constitutionally invest one dollar of it, or pay it out under any 
provision of the treaties, until Congress shall have appropriated 
it by law, and directed its application. In these cases, as he had 
before said, the lands had not been sold, the monej' had not 
come into the treasury, and Congress had preferred rather to 
appropriate the annual interest, than to borrow the money in 
advance, for the single purpose of funding it. 

" He cheerfully admitted that the amount was a debt, as far as 
the treaty-making power could impose a debt upon the country; 
but it was not a liability upon the treasury, within tlie laws of 
Congress, and could not, therefore, be recognized as a debt by 
the Secretary of the Treasury, in presenting the state of the 
treasury, its means and liabilities, to Congress. The government 
was bound to pay the interest upon these sums to the Indians, or 
foi'feit its faith, pledged through the treaty-making power, or it 
was bound to invest the principal so that the Indians might 
receive the interest from other debtors. Congress had exercised 
its option and preferred to appropriate the interest simply, and 
wait the sale of the lands to realize the capital to be invested. 
[Here Mr. Webster inquired, 'Where did Congress get the 
option ?'] Mr. Wright asked, does it not follow from the very 
nature of the transactions between the parties'? The Indians 
sell and convey their lands to the United States, and surrender 
the title and possession together, upon the faith of treaty stipula- 
tions. In consideration of the lands sold, the United States agree 
to hold certain portions of the purchase-money, and invest them 
for the Indians, The United States alone are trusted, and the 
receipt by the Indians of the annual interest upon the sums to be 
invested is a good compliance with the contract to them. Would 
it not be a perfect technical compliance, if the government were, 
by way of investment, to issue to the Indians its own stocks ? 



992 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

And can it be material, so long as the United States choose to 
remain the debtors, whether this form be gone through with, or 
the treaty be left as the evidence of liability, and Congress annu- 
ally appropriate the interest on the money as it would upon the 
stocks? It seemed to him that the inquiry of tlie Senator raised 
a distinction without a difference of interest on either side, and 
questioned the right of Congress to its option in a case where 
the option could not but exist from the nature of the transac- 
tions. The most the Indians can claim is the liability of the 
United States for the interest and principal of their money. That 
they have by the solemnity of treaty stipulations, while the 
money is not invested. When it shall be, they may have securi- 
ties of a less desirable character, but in conformity with their 
contract. The only question, then, which could influence Con- 
gress, in its option, was the interest of this government and the 
convenience of its treasury. 

"Could it be wise for Congress, in the fulfillment of treaties 
of this character, and with such parties, and at a time when there 
was not a surplus of money in the treasury, to have directed 
loans upon the credit of the people for the payment of debts, 
the payment of which was not a matter of feeling or interest 
with the creditor, and for the eventual payment of which an 
ample fund had been provided by the terms of the contract which 
made the debt ? Could loans have been made at a rate of interest 
less than that stipulated to be paid to the Indians ? That will 
not be pretended. 

" Where, then, is the cause of complaint or of fault ? It is 
simply in the assumption that here is a debt not mentioned by 
the President, and still a debt against the public treasury and the 
people of the country. 

" Is this so, in the sense in which the complaint has been pre- 
ferred by the honorable Senator against the message of the 
President ? Mr. Wright had admitted that there was a liability 
to pay, and an ample fund in the lands ceded by the Indian 
treaties to make the payment, and had attempted to show that 
Congress had acted wisely in appropriating the interest upon the 
money merely, until the sale of the lands should bring into the 
treasury interest and principal, and thus enable the investment to 
be made without the contraction of a permanent debt. 



Ltfe and Times of Silas Wright. 993 

"Was there anything in all t liis new or singular, or peculiar to 
this administration? How long Imd this government \mvn mak- 
ing treaties with the Indians for the purchase of their land, and 
contracting obligations with them? And if these are items of 
the public debt, why not their annuities for the purchase of the 
same lands, which are of a large amount? They are debts in the 
nature of investments, but they are never reported as part, of the 
public debt of the country. Neither are to be, found in any 
report heretofore made from the financial department of the 
government, under any administration which has ever existed, as 
items of our public debt. They are not so by the law, and they 
have never been so treated in practice. He had in his possession 
a document which he had obtained for another purpose, and 
which contained a schedule of the entire Indian treaties up to 
last year. He should think — for he had not taken the trouble 
to count them — tliat there were several hundreds, and on cast- 
ing his eye over them this morning he found they commenced, 
at the latest, as early as 1790, and had been made constantly, if 
not strictly annually, up to this time. 

"The practice of stipulating to invest sums of capital, though 
not new in the administration of our Indian attairs, had greatly 
increased within the last few years. He had had occasion to 
become personally acquainted with an old case. He referred to 
the deposit, by the Seneca Indians of New York, of th ' sum of 
1100,000 Avith the United States, being part of the consideration 
money for their possessory title to their reservations under the 
stipulation o\\ the part of this government, as he was informed 
and believes, that they should receive six per cent interest upon 
their capital so loaned. He spoke from recollection,* and would 
not be confident, but his impression was that the contract was 
entered into in 180G. He could further inform the Senator that, 
during the administration of John Quincy Adams, this money 
had been invested in the three per cent stocks of the United 
States then outstanding, and that Congress, while he was a mem- 
ber of the other branch, as he now recollected and believed, 
appropriated the other $3,000, or about that sum, to make up to 
the Indians the interest to which they were entitled. This Avas 
an old case, and he spoke from memory in regard to it; but from 

63 



994 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

it the lionorable Senator could see that, if we were now to oo 
back to the commencement of our Indian relations and bring up 
a new account of public debt, we should be compelled to look 
far behind the time of Mr. Van Buren, as well as to begin an 
entirely new calculation of debt. If the honorable Senator would 
look for the investment of this Seneca fund of $100,000 he 
thought he would look in vain; and yet it had never appeared in 
any statement from the treasury, as an item of our public debt. 
An estimate for the interest would be found in every annual esti- 
mate of expenditure since the redemption of the government 
stock in which the last investment was made, but the capital was 
not mentioned, because it had not been reappropriated for a dif- 
ferent investment. Still, the Senator would not be disposed to 
charge this $100,000 to the present administration, as a debt con- 
tracted by it and to be unjustly palmed off upon its successors. 

" Yet this was but a fair sample of the policy of going back 
into these Indian relations to find an existing debt, not disclosed, 
against the present administration. If we adopt the idea, we 
must go back, not to 1806, but to 1790, and bring up the account 
through all the administrations which have existed under our 
Constitution, and then solve the question whether that adminis- 
tration is to be most censured for contracting debt which has 
succeeded in extinguishing most Indian title to the public 
domain of the country, or whether the debts so contracted have 
been and are considered as resting upon a sure fund for their 
redemption in the lands purchased; while the treaties are, in 
every other respect, beneficial to the country, to its population 
and prosperity, and to its treasury. 

" He believed the last and the present administrations had 
extinguished more Indian titles, and brought more of the public 
lands into the market, and within the reach of settlement, than 
any other two, if not more than all preceding administrations; 
and, as a necessary consequence, the amounts of purchase- 
money paid, and agreed to be paid, in the shape of annuities, 
investments and otherwise, would be greater than under pre- 
vious administrations. But what had hitherto been the estimate 
placed by the country upon such policy successfully prosecuted? 
Had we been in the habit of setting down these purchases of 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 995 

Indian lands as bad and losing bargains, — as imposing burdens 
upon the treasury and debts upon the country, — or as improv- 
ing the public revenues and strengthening the treasury, while tliey 
enriched the country ? Had it ever been supposed that the lands 
purchased were not much more than sufficient to pay the debts 
contracted ? 

" If, however, this movement was the indication of a change 
of policy by the coming administration in regard to the lands; 
if the fund thus provided to pay these debts is to be separated 
from the debts; if the lands, or their proceeds, are to be given 
away, and the liabilities incurred under the Indian treaties are to 
be left unpaid upon the hands of this government, then indeed 
the amounts due to the Indians, as well in annuities as in invest- 
ments, or otherwise, may justly be counted as debts, as perma- 
nent, enduring debts, only to be paid by taxation upon the 
people. He would tell the Senator, however, that that adminis- 
tration and that party which shall adopt this new policy, and 
give away the lands without discharging these obligations 
incurred for their purchase, will be the administration and the 
party which will charge these sums upon the people as debts, 
and which .must bear the responsibility of the act. 

" The honorable Senator proposes to have a new set of books 
opened, to protect the next administration from the debts and 
liabilities incurred by this; to establish what he calls ' a rest ' 
between them, Mr. Wkigiit would go with him to do this ; but 
he should insist that the accounts be fairly stated and the books 
fairly kept; that when the Senator had charged the administra- 
tion of Mr, Van Buren with the debts due to the Indians, he 
should credit it with the lands which formed the consideration 
for the debts. In this way, the account would present the whole 
truth, and he did not fear the responsibility of balancing the 

books so kept. 

"He was aware that one most expensive treaty had been made, 
not by this, but the last administration, without profit to this 
government. He referred to the last treaty with the Cherokees, 
for the extinguishment of their title to their lands. These lands 
were principally in the State of Georgia, and the Indian title 
was extinguished for the benefit of that State, and not of the 



996 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

national treasury. Yet this treaty was but a late fulfillment of 
an obligation i-esting upon this government in favor of that 
State, and almost as old as the government itself; an obligation 
entered into to acquire its title to a large portion of the public 
domain, and upon which, therefore, the moneys paid and payable 
under that treaty are justly chargeable, and from the proceeds 
of which they should be reimbursed to the public treasury. 

" Still, this treaty being included, the proceeds of the public 
lands Avould clear all former administrations, as well as the 
present, from any resi)onsibility for debts contracted under 
Indian treaties. Let the new set of books, then, show both sides 
of the account, and contain a full and fair statement of the 
whole matter, and Ave shall not hear that this or any other admiu- 
istration has run the country in debt by the extinguishment of 
the Indian title to our immense public domain. Let the proceeds 
of the lands stand against the moneys paid and the liabilities 
incurred, and see if these have been bad and unprofitable and 
losing bargains. 

" Is this to be charged at this day, and from that quarter ? 
How long is it since we heard a very different account of 
these Indian contracts ? Since he had been honored with 
a seat here, the charge had been made in this chamber, 
and repeated much more loudly and widely out of it, that 
our Indian policy was a swindling policy; that we were pur- 
chasing their lands for a song, and driving them to the ends of 
the earth for a resting place. Then, the charge was that we 
were making cruel bargains with the ignorant savages, the poor 
Indians! Now, it is that the administration has been loading the 
country with debt by making these same bargains. It will not 
do, said Mr. "VY. ; it is too soon to make this short turn, and wholly 
change the character of the complaints growing out of our Indian 
relations. The facts will not sustain the last position. The bar- 
gains, as a whole, have been profitable, vastly profitable, to the 
public treasury, and the lands yet unsold constitute a fund a 
hundred-fold more than sufficient to discharge every remaining 
liability. So much for this mode of showing the President in 
error in his statement of our public debt. 

" The honorable Senator proceeded to enumerate other heads, 



Life ajsd Times of Silas WuiauT. 997 

undei* which he did not assert, but expressed his suspicion, that 
there were existing debts, lie did not attempt to enunierale 
items of debt, and it was im^jossible lor Mr. Wjugut to conjec- 
ture what the items were, or for what the debts were suspected 
to have been contracted. The heads enumerated were, debts for 
the public works, debts for tlie Florida war, debts for Indian 
depredations at the north, and debts for other things. 

"Well, now, as to the debts for public works; there might be 
such, but he, Mr. Wkigut, did not know what they were — he 
did not know that there were any. He was sure it could not be 
possible that the Senator intended simply to inform us that there 
were public works commenced which it was the interest of tlie 
country to prosecute, and that money was to be appropriated for 
them. And if there was a debt for public works, other than such 
a prospective obligation, he was ignorant of it. If that descrip- 
tion of account was to be opened, he would abandon the discus- 
sion with the single remark that the honorable Senator would be 
fortunate if he found the new administration clear of obligations 
of that character, either at its commencement or its close, 

" What was the debt growing out of the Florida war ? He, 
Mr. Wright, was ignorant of it, unless it consisted of claims for 
losses sustained by citizens in consequence of that war; and did 
any man suppose that the President of the United States, or the 
Secretary of the Treasury, was authorized to present those claims 
to the country as a part of its public debt V Are they so, in fact '? 
They have been presented year after year, and session after ses- 
sion, to the Congress of the United States, and a Congress has 
not yet been found to recognize a dollar of them. And were 
the executive officers, in the face of this action of Congress, to 
declare them public debts, to state their amount, and call upon 
Congress for provision for their payment V The slightest reflec- 
tion Avould convince the Senator that such was a very uncertain 
and dangerous way to make up an amount of debt. It would be 
nothing short of executive usurpation of a fearful character. 

" Then the debts for Indian depredations at the north — as, if 
he understood the Senator correctly, this was one of his heads of 
enumeration — he knew nothing of them ; he knew not what or 
where they were. 



998 Life and Times op Silas Weight. 

"But there were 'debts for other things;' yes; why did not 
the honox-able Senator bring in the $5,000,000 for French spolia- 
tions previous to the year 1800? That was as much a debt as 
the others. It was a cbiini not recognized b}^ Congress. The 
honorable Senator believed it was a debt ; he, Mr. Wright, did 
not. Why not call up the pension list V That is a debt which 
we must pay until the gallant old soldiers are no more. It was 
just as properly presented as the Indian annuities. Why not 
present the claims of the heirs of the late Robert Fulton ? Many 
supposed that a just debt. The Mead claim? Many thought 
similarly of that? In short, why not present the 10,000 claims 
which their Secretary told him would, in a day or two, be inven- 
toried, under a resolution of the Senate of the last session? 
There are 10,000 claims on the files of the two Houses of Con- 
gress, and are they debts to be charged to the administration of 
Mr. Van Buren? Was this to be done before Congress had 
recognized their justice, or made them debts at all? He hoped 
not, and he believed not. 

"Again, the honorable Senator said, if he, Mr. Weight, under- 
stood him aright, that the Secretary of the Treasury had author- 
ized the assumption that this administration was to throw a 
balance of debt on the next, by the admission that he did not 
anticipate the payment of the outstanding treasury notes previous 
to March, 1842. [Mr. Webster observed that he was not conscious 
of having stated that.] Mr. Weight did not wish to misrepresent 
the Senator, but he had so understood him, and so read his re- 
marks published in the Intelligencer of this morning. He would, 
however, refer to the seventh page of the annual report of the 
Secretary of the Treasury for the present year, now upon our 
tables, to prove that such was not his anticipation, but that he 
expected the revenues of 1841 would meet the expenses of that 
year, redeem the whole outstanding balance of four and a half 
millions of treasury notes, and leave in the treasury, in money, 
on the 1st of January, 1842, the sum of $824,273. 

" The statement of the Secretary is as follows : 

" ' More details concerning the estimates of the next year will be proper, 
and will illustrate the correctness of some of the preceding results. 

" 'It may be stated, from the best data in possession of this department, 
that the receipts, under the existing laws, will probably be as foUows: 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 999 

" 'From customs |19,000,000 

" ' From lands 3,500,000 

" ' From miscellaueous !^(> , 000 

" ' Add the expected balance in the treasury, avail- 
able on the first of January next 1 , 580 , 855 

"'The aggregate of ordinary means for the next 

year would then be $24,160,855 

" ' There will be nothing more, either of principal or 
interest, due from banks, which is likely to be 
made available, except about 220,000 

" 'A power will exist, under the act of 31st March, 
1840, to issue treasury notes till a year from its 
passage expires, but not to make the whole emis- 
sion outstanding at any one time exceed five 
millions of dollars. 

" ' This will furnish additional means, equal to the 
computed amount which can be issued at the 
close of the present year, being about 342,018 

" ' Hence, there may be added from these several 

sources so much as to make the whole means for 

the next year • $24,723,473 

" 'On the other hand, the expenditures for 1841, for 

ordinary purposes, if Congress make no reduction 

in the appropriations requested by the ditferent 

departments, are estimated at 19,250,000 

" ' This would leave a balance in the treasury, at the 

close of the year, equal to $5,473,473 

" ' But certain payments must also be made on ac- 
count of the funded and unfunded debt, unless 

Congress authorize contracts to be formed for 

extending the time of their payment. Thus, 

there will be required, 
"'On account of the funded debt, chiefly for the 

cities of this district $149,200 

" ' For the redemption of treasury notes, if all the 

others be issued which can be under the present 

law, as then the amount returned within A. D. 

1841 will probably not exceed 4 , 500 , 000 

" ' Estimated balance in the treasury at the close of 

the next year, after all payments whatever f^^'^*^^. 



1000 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

"It was not, then, supposed by the Secretary that this debt of 
four and a half millions was to be thrown over to 1842. He 
expressly anticipated its payment in 1841. He would now pass, 
very briefly, to other topics. 

"The honorable Senator complained that the President, in his 
message, and the Secretary, in his report, had made reference to 
the money on deposit with the States, and called with earnestness 
to know whether the President or the Secretary had recommended 
the withdrawal of that money, or any part of it. He, Mr. Wright, 
found no such recommendation, and for the best of all reasons, in 
his judgment, — there was no necessity for it; tlie revenue of the 
year 1841 was expected to be equal to the expenditures of 1841, 
including the redemption of |4,500,000 of treasury notes. The 
deposit with the States was referred to as an item of jjroperty 
belonging to this government, but was not mentioned as in the 
power of the Secretary of the Treasury or of the President. It 
was in the hands of Congress, an accumulation of former years 
when taxation was heavier than at the present time, and was 
referred to to show that there was no cause for increased taxa- 
tion upon the people; that the government, as such, was pos- 
sessed of means to discharge every existing liability, and to 
present a balance of some $17,000,000 or 118,000,000 for the 
future disposition of the national Legislature. This certainly 
could be no just cause of complaint. The President and the 
Secretary had been in the exercise of most responsible trusts. 
They were about to surrender them to others, who Avould seem 
more directly to represent the public will and choice. It Avas 
their duty to present a true and full account of the public pro- 
perty and the public interests as they supposed them to exist; 
and surely a reference to an interest of some $28,000,000 of safely 
invested money could not be considered singular or censurable. 
"The honorable Senator had seen fit further to complain that 
the President had not recommended a modification of the tariff 
and an increase of taxation. Why should he have done so? The 
calculations and representations of the responsible oflicer charged 
with that duty showed that more revenue was not required for the 
contemplated service of the coming year. Why, then, should the 
President have recommended measures for an increase of revenue ? 



Life and Times of Silas Wrioiit. 1001. 

"If there had been a just anticipation of a (k'ficit'ncy of means 
to meet the wants of the treasury it wouhl have been incumbent 
upon him, as it wonbl upon the Secretary, to liave [jointed out 
tlie mode and recommended I lie measures to su|iply lli;il dcti- 
ciency. Such did not appear to be tlieir anticipations, and llicir 
communications to Congress liad been made to conform to tiieir 
sense of their public duties. It might have been very unchari- 
table in him, but, when the Senator was indulging in his remarks 
upon this point, he could not but feel that the gentleman was 
imjjressed with the exceedingly ditHcult question, tlie many 
knotty points, which the adjustment of the tariff is likely to ])re- 
sent to the coming administration, and that it was the manifest 
interest of tlie now dominant party in the country that poor 
defeated Mr. Van Buren should come in and make an effort to 
settle it in advance. It could not fail to l)e seen that portions of 
that triumphant party would complain of anything which any 
man could recommend upon this subject, and the Senator might 
kindly suppose that complaints could not now harm the Presi- 
dent. 

"So far from reciprocating these feelings, Mr. W. rejoiced that 
it had not been found necessary for the present President to 
touch this vexed question. And he could not be mistaken in 
supposing that it would have been indecorous in him, after the 
tremendous defeat he had experienced at the late elections, to 
have reached after disputed topics with a view to their finnl and 
permanent adjustment by himself or his friends. He was taking 
leave of his responsible position, and Mr. W. rejoiced to believe 
he was doing what he believed it was alone proper for him to 
do,— confining himself strictly to the discharge of those duties 
which his short remaining official term required at his hands. 
In reference to the adjustment of the tariff, he had done as he 
should have done: he had left the whole matter to those who are 
to come after him, and who should be, as they claim to be, the 
more inmiediate and acceptable representatives of the popular 
will; and he, Mr. W., did not speak untruly when he said his 
most ardent wish was that they might be able to adjust that difti- 
cnlt question happily for the country and satisfactorily to every 
interest involved. 



1002 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

"A single word more and he would close. The honorable Sen- 
ator concluded with a remark which manifested a disposition to 
say that the friends of this administration were, or were to be 
made, responsible for the necessity of an extra session of Con- 
gress, if a convention of the new Congress should be ordered by 
the new President. ISTow he, Mr. Wright, was one of those who 
should do everything in his power to obviate any such necessity; 
and to accomplish that object with the greatest certainty, he 
should use his utmost endeavors to keep the appropriations of 
this session within the anticipated means of the year 1841. He 
believed the estimates supplied all the necessary wants, and he 
intended to adhere to them strictly. Having done so, he should 
cheerfully leave it to those who have been placed in power, by a 
triumphant expression of the popular voice, to call a Congress 
when they pleased, and to recommend such measures as they 
pleased. [Mr. Webster having made some remaks in reply 
resumed his seat.] Mr. Wright said he rose to make a very few 
explanations, and would detain the Senate but a few minutes. 

" He thought the Senator in error as to liis additional six 
millions of means which had been expended during the term of 
tlie present administration, arising from deferred merchants' 
bonds. He spoke frooi recollection, and would not be confident, 
but the only general suspension of bonds which he recollected 
took place under the act of Congress of the 16th of October, 
1837, passed at the extra session of that year, and that was a 
suspension but for nine months, and could only have operated 
upon bonds falling due in that year. 

" In reference to the Senator's remark as to the President's 
anticipation of a further diminution of the expenses of the gov- 
ernment, he preferred that the President should speak for himself. 
The Senator said that he assigned no other cause for the expecta- 
tion than the diminution of the pension roll by death. What 
the President did say was : 

" ' Causes are in operation which will, it is believed, justify a still further 
reduction, without injury to any important national interest. The expenses 
of sustaining the troops employed in Florida have been gradually and 
greatly reduced, through the persevering efforts of the War department; 
and a reasonable hope may be entertained that the necessity for military 
operations in that quarter will soon cease. The removal of the Indians 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 1003 

from within our settled borders is nearly completed. The pension list, one 
of the heaviest charges upon the treasury, is rapidly diuiinishing by death. 
The most costly of our public buildings are eitlier finished or nearly so, and 
we may, I think, safely promise ourselves a continued exemption from 
border difficulties.' 

" His principal object, in rising at this time, was to make a 
correction of an error into whicli the Senator had fallen in his 
first remai"ks, in reference to the manner of keeping the accounts 
of the trust funds at the Treasury department. He had 
intended to make the correction before; but not having noted it 
on his brief, it had been forgotten. He was expressly authorized 
to say that separate and distinct accounts of all trust funds were 
kept at the department, with all the accuracy and care which 
characterized the keeping of any accounts there. The books 
containing these accounts were regularly brought up, and the 
statement of any such account could be regularly and accurately 
made from them; but the state of these accounts was not, as 
matter of course, communicated to Congress with the Secretary's 
financial report. Such communications were always made when 
called for, and not otherwise. The Senator would see, therefore, 
that his idea — that these accounts, and the moneys in the trea- 
sury to their credit, had become intermingled with the general 
affairs of the treasury, so that it was difficult to tell how the 
trust funds did actually stand — was a mistaken one. There was 
no confusion upon the subject at the department. [After a few 
remarks from Mr. Webster] Mr. Wkight said he wished to add 
a single remark which he had omitted when last up. Tlie 
Senator complained that the sums which were stipulated by the 
Indian treaties to be invested for the Indians did not appear in 
the annual estimates of the Secretary of the Treasury. He 
said the Indian annuities were annually estimated for, and there- 
fore were made to appear to Congress yearly as claims which 
must be paid. Mr. Wkight thought it was a perfect answer to 
the suggestion to say that the interest upon the sums stipulated 
to be invested, and not invested, was annually estimated for, as 
the Senator would find by examining the estimates for the Indian 
department, and this estimate showed the liability as fully as an 
estimate of the principal would do. The estimate is for the 



1004 Life and Tuies of Silas Wright. 

annual interest upon a sura named and stipulated by treaty to 
be invested. Is it possible to specify the liability more distinctly 
or plainly ? Are our liabilities for the annuities more fully 
exliibited in the estimates '? He could not see that they were. 

"Another single remark would content him. The Senator 
seemed to suppose it doubtful, from the message of tlie Presi- 
dent and the remarks of himself, whether they did not both 
favor a recall of the moneys on deposit with the States, rather 
than the imposition of duties upon 'wines and silks.' Of the 
opinion of the President upon this subject he could say nothing, 
because the President had expressed no opinion ; and for him- 
self, he could say that he had neither given, nor intended to give, 
any opinion upon this point. He would not certainly favor a 
recall of the money deposited with the States until the treasury 
wanted money, and when that state of facts should be shown, 
and he should be asked for a vote, either to recall those moneys 
or to impose a duty upon wines and silks, he should not be found 
unprepared, or reluctant, to make the decision. 

" The question was then taken on the motion of Mr. Wkight 
[to refer to the Committee on Finance], which was agreed to." 



Life and Times of Silas Win out. 1005 



Chapter LXXXVllI. 

THE PRINCIPLES OF GIIANTING PENSIONS. 

Pensions were originally granted to those who were 
made invalids by service in the army or navy. From a 
very small beginning, by enlarging the principles n])on 
which they are granted, onr pensions alone now cost tlie 
treasury as much, if not more, than the whole govern- 
ment did in Mr. Adams' and Gen. Jackson's time. In 
early times the widows and orphans of naval officers 
were pensioned and paid out of a fund created by small 
monthly contributions withheld from their regular pay, 
and by apx^lying tlie government's share of naval prizes 
to that object. Now they are paid directly from the 
treasury. Pensions were, as early as 1818 and 1832, 
granted to all who served in the war of the Revolution. 
These were subsequently extended to their widows. Now 
we pension those who served in the war of 1812, as well 
as those disabled in our late war, and the widows and 
children of those dying in the service. It has often hap- 
pened that Congress has, by special act, given pensions 
to those who were not included in any general law. On 
the 23d of December, 1840, the case of Hannah Leighton 
came before the Senate, when Mr. Wright addressed 
that body in opposition to it. He expressed his fears 
that the principles upon which pensions were allowed 
would be expanded to an alarming extent, and that indi- 
vidual cases might be granted, where congressional action 
was based solely upon sympathy. The following remarks 
disclose the principles upon which he acted. The bill 
passed by 29 to 1 3. 

" Mr. Wright hoped he might be indulged in a few remarks 



1006 Life and Times of Silas Wright. 

on the subject then before the Senate ; and he owed it to himself 
to say, however much less sensible he might appear to be to the 
sympathies of the human heart than other Senators who had 
preceded him, it Avas with great embarrassment and pain that he 
opposed a case of this kind ; and were it not that he saw in it 
the introduction into their legislation of a principle of fearful 
extent, he should not be heard in opposition; but under that 
consciousness he had opposed it before, and he felt bound to do 
so again. But he begged permission to say a few words in 
explanation. He did not question at all the right of the present 
Committee on Pensions to introduce a new principle into the 
pension system ; he had no doubt that this case had appealed to 
the strongest feelings of their hearts, and that they had been 
induced by their sympathies to present it to the Senate ; but he 
desired to say that it was presented here on a principle new to 
him in the pension system. What had been the ground assumed 
as the basis of pensions hitherto ? Length of service. Upon 
what principle was the law of 1818 based? If his memory 
served him right, it was service in the regular army, and for at 
least nine months. Upon what hypothesis were pensions based 
then ? He could not say positively, for he was not in the Con- 
gress at that time, but he had always supposed on the hypothesis 
that the time of a man had been consumed in the service of his 
country, and that he had never been remunerated for that service, 
or that he had been paid in continental paper which was worth 
nothing ; and at that late day, that was the manner in which it 
was proposed to compensate him for the early service of his life 
in the perils of that war. That he supposed to be the predica- 
tion of the pension act of 1818. They passed on, then, so far as 
his memory served him, without any important addition to that 
act until the year 1828, and then they passed a very important 
law pensioning a certain class of officers of the Revolution. And 
on what ground ? Why, they had been patriotic enough to peril 
their lives in the service of their country. Yes; and he, Mr. 
Wright, was acting at the time that law was passed ; it Avas as 
a commutation of a promise held out to them by the old Con- 
gress, which had either not been fulfilled or not equivalently ful- 
filled ; on that he knew the action of Congress was based, or of 



Life and Times of Silas Wright. 1007 

the other branch of it, ol" wliich lie was a member when the law 
of 1828 was passed. In 1832, again, a mucli more broad and 
comprehensive pension act was passed, but he, Mr. Wright, was 
not then a member of Congress. But what was its peculiar 
characteristic? First to shorten the term of service from nine 
to six months, and to comprehend the militia as well as the regu- 
lar army. These, according to his recollection, were the features 
of that law — a term of service, sacrifices, and loss of time, which 
had not been compensated for, was the predication of tliat law. 
Well, then, so far pensions were confined to persons who had 
performed service, and they had not then departed from that 
principle either in favor of widows or heirs. In 183G another 
pension law was passed, and a most significant and impor- 
tant law it Avas. He was a member of this body at the 
time; and he felt it to be a just reproach upon himself 
when he said that, when that law was passed, he was not 
fully aware of the extent of its provisions — he then was 
derelict of his duty; but what were the principles of that law ? 
It retained, to his understanding, the same predication; it 
extended pensions to the widows of officers and soldiers of the 
Revolution, who were the wives of such ofticers and soldiers at 
the time when they performed service — to widows who had them- 
selves sustained sacrifices, and injuries produced in their fami- 
lies, by the taking away the head of the family into the military 
service of the country. So far, then, though they had gone a 
step beyond the individuals who had performed the service, they 
had retained the broad basis on which the pension system was 
founded. It was in 1836 that that law was passed; and in 1838 
they passed another most essential measure, as they had seen in 
its operation on the treasury, for he thought he was not mistaken 
when he said it had taken $4,000,000 from the treasury, or had 
added that much to the expenses of the government. These 
laws were passed when they had an overflowing treasury, impel- 
ling them on to an overflowing expenditure. This, then, was a 
britf review of what he understood to be the general pension 
laws which had been passed; he knew, as the honorable chairman 
of the committee said, that particular laws had passed, but he 
asked if this proposed law did not contain a principle entirely 



1008 Life and Times of Silas Wuiaiir. 

new? F'rom the fact state<l l>y the Senator IVonj Massachusetts, 
the time was nothing, at tlie most 1ml twenty-lour hours, Init it 
was the service of the life of a gallant ami patriotic officer. Uut 
he was not the tirst man that fell, for tin- Senator from ."Massa- 
chusetts tohl them that five or six freemen of this country fell 
before the weajton was aimetl at the life of this oHiier. Could 
they, then, pension his wiilow, and not the widows of those other 
men i Could they make such a tlisliiietion ? Ves, and the next 
(hiy, and the next, the patriots of that period rushed to tin- battle 
Held; and should they siy that the widow of the man who fell 
on till' first day of that contest should havi- a p«nsion for her 
lifr, and that the widows of those who si-rveil in that patriotic 
struggle for a longer period, and then fell, should have no eom- 
pensation? Could men make this distinction ? Could theirsym- 
pathies imluce them to yield to this claim, and not yii-ld to tin- 
others? lie had spoken in admiration of tlie commilti-e, and 
that admiration niade it a most reluctant duty to oppose them; hut 
to what extent the principle might he carried, if they opened the 
door, he i-ould not say, ami, therefore, lie felt impelled to guard 
against unforeseen evils. Who had apprdieiidid, wlnn the law 
of is.if^ was passed, the millions on millions that had lueii taken 
from the treasury in that sln>rt period? \o man. he ventured to 
say. Who could say now, if they adopted the principle, that the 
living widows of other gallant sj)irits who rushed to the battle 
licM on the lirst day of the {{evolution wouM not elaiin to be 
pensioned tor life, and not only pensioned for lib-, but, as in this 
case, fi>r some years back? [Afr. iJenton — Nine years baek. | 
Mr. Wuicirr continuid. To what extent the principb* would 
lead, he could not conceive. If this bill were to become a law 
of Congress, if this case were to prevail, who <Miuld stand up 
ami protect his sympathies against granting similar pensions to 
the widows of thos«' who fell at Lexington before the fall of this 
ortieer? It was views of this sort that impelled him a year ago, 
and which woidd impel him now, to oppitse this bill, appealing 
as forcibly as it did, with an irn'sitible force, to their sympathies 
and their feelings of humanity." 



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